Friday, March 28, 2003

Here's an interesting story from yesterday's New York Times -- nationwide polls say that opposition to the war is far greater among blacks than among whites, and the Times found deep skepticism about the war in interviews with blacks in New York City.

For years right-wingers have sneeringly said that blacks are stuck on the "Democratic plantation." But if that's the case, how does it jibe with the fact that New York's top Democrats, Senators Schumer and Clinton, support the war?

The blacks quoted in the Times article simply don't trust Bush -- for all the right reasons:

"You got a president who stole his way into the place, who went into it with this on his mind," said Willie Roper, 65, at the Bay View Houses public housing project in Canarsie, Brooklyn, referring to Mr. Bush's election. "That's why we have this war."...

"Oh, they tried to kill my Daddy," Julias Dukes said in a mocking singsong. Mr. Dukes, a 47-year-old former marine who was sitting on a stoop along Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene, added, "It's a personal thing."...

"You know who I see as a threat?" asked Bashir Sultan, 39, a former computer technician, finishing a slice of pizza in Harlem with a friend, Dolores Jackson. "I see North Korea. Or China. I don't see Saddam as a threat."


Pretty astute. Maybe there really is a racial "bell curve" -- maybe Charles Murray just had it upside down.

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