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Depressing Poll (And Pollsters) On Racial Divide

The most recent CBS/New York Times poll on the racial divide in the U.S. (actually, more like a chasm) is depressing, as is the NYT?s article about the poll.

You?ll need to read the article/poll for yourself. They stop just short of portraying a stark racial divide on absolutely everything. Thus, almost surprisingly, no evidence is presented showing a racial disagreement over whether the sun rises in the east.

I will leave it to others to analyze the poll?s techniques and methodology, with one exception: the question on affirmative action was maddeningly, although not unexpectedly, obfuscatory and slanted:

55. In order to make up for past discrimination, do you favor or oppose programs which make special efforts to help minorities get ahead?

44% of whites favor this version of ?affirmative action?; 48% oppose. 80% of blacks favor; 13% oppose. 73% of Hispanics favor; 21% oppose.

In addition to being misleading, and thus producing misleading results, this formulation of the question is quite odd, inasmuch as special treatment of minorities ?[i]n order to make up for past discrimination? has been regarded as unconstitutional, at least in higher education, ever since Bakke (except in cases where such treatment has been allowed as a remedy for proven discrimination by a specific defendant).

In addition, asking people whether they favor or oppose ?programs which make special efforts to help minorities get ahead? is too broad a question to reveal anything useful. Almost everyone would favor at least some ?special efforts,? and similarly almost everyone would oppose some other ?special efforts.? Most people, if they thought about it, would need to know some details about the ?special efforts? at issue in order to say anything meaningful about whether they favored or opposed them.

Based on other polls, I believe it?s clear beyond cavil that changing ?special efforts? to ?preferential treatment based on their race? would have produced a substantial majority in opposition. On the other hand, if the question concerned support for non-discriminatory ?special efforts,? the majority in favor would be equally substantial.

Good evidence for the above assertion can be found in the answers to the question that immediately followed the one on affirmative action:

56. Do you favor or oppose programs that make special efforts to help people get ahead who come from low-income backgrounds, regardless of their gender or ethnicity?

Whites favored such policies by 82% to 14%; blacks by 93% to 4%; and Hispanics by 85% to 10%.

By using such a mealy-mouthed term as ?special efforts? in its question on affirmative action, the CBS/New York Times poll has disguised, whether on purpose or not, the pervasive unpopularity of most of what is actually done under the rubric of ?affirmative action,? which is providing preferential treatment to some individuals based solely on their race or ethnicity.

Full post as published by Discriminations on July 16, 2008 (boomark / email).