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Poll: Race is country’s most important issue


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By Mark Berman, Washington Post

For the first time in more than two decades, more than one in 10 Americans say that race is the most pressing issue facing the country, according to a new Gallup poll.

The poll showed that 13 percent of Americans think that race relations and racism are the most important problems, the same number of people who said the economy, and more than than those who cited unemployment (8 percent), immigration (7 percent) and terrorism (2 percent), among many other things.

In fact, the only thing that more people named as a problem was general dissatisfaction with the government, Congress and politicians, with 15 percent of people citing that.

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Comments (33)
  1. Dogula says - Posted: December 20, 2014

    Horsesh!#.
    Wasn’t mr. obama supposed to be ushering in a post-racial America?
    Good job.

  2. Justice says - Posted: December 20, 2014

    One on ten? Where in Oakland? Chicago? Ferguson? This is a leftist media creation trying to invent a race crises with false facts on orders from those who are nothing but riot encouragers and community agitators that are being egged-on right out of the White House and by the likes of Sharpe-Tongue who should be in prison for millions in unpaid taxes and the other criminals trying to encourage riots who should be in jail. The race-crises is invented by left wing media hacks trying to encourage looting and riots for leftist political stunts who want it to continue because they were defeated at the polls and in court and they want chaos leading up to the next election.

  3. Hmmm... says - Posted: December 20, 2014

    Dogula and JustAnAss-I was going to comment about how you two are clueless as to the problems facing this country…and then the thought occurred to me, thinking about the general tone and tenor of your posts- that you two EXEMPLIFY the problems facing this country.

  4. Tahoehunter says - Posted: December 20, 2014

    You are exactly right Justice, the left got their hats handed to them, with 2016 around the corner they are extremely desperate right now, that’s what the race card is all about…..

  5. Dogula says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    WE are the problem with this country? I can’t speak for Justice, since I don’t know him, but how is it a problem for the country that my husband and I support ourselves with NO help from the government, we both are productive we take no welfare, no foodstamps, no obamacare subsidies, we don’t demand anything from anybody else, we give to charity and our church, we pay grotesque amounts of our income in taxes and mandatory insurances, yet we are CONSTANTLY being told that we are racist and selfish and we need to do/give more, by people who do nothing but tear this country down???
    WHO is the problem? We are not the divisive ones here. You are.

  6. business owner says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    Hey guys…Hmm is a commie dirt bag. If you havent already seen from previous conversations on here, engaging with him is useless. He is just lkke all the other commie dirtbag agitators stirring things up in this country. ADMIN needs a voting system on here and he will become irrelevant. Hmm…how many subsidies do you recieve from the gov?

  7. Atomic says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    This is an unremarkable report. An uptick in race relation concerns now, of course. Yet the media consistently asks the wrong questions. No one wants to ask the real, firm questions in this country. So I will.
    Why is it that the police and the general public have this belief that the black male is committing a disproportionate amount of the crime in this country? Well, because they are. Why then, are they? Why are entire generations of black families going it alone without fathers? Fathers who serve lengthy jail sentences while the mothers and grandmothers tow the line with mixed results as young black sons follow the same path?

    Is it because this American society is so racist that black males get no chance to succeed and are therefore relegated to a life of crime? This seems to be the narrative that most of the media puts forward. Nonsense. This is a weak, shallow position that is rooted in white guilt, but goes no farther. The real answer is that black society is, and has been, in a tailspin. And no amount of white guilt hangover is going to fix it.

    My forefathers fought and died in the Civil War to make this right. Millions of Americans died to correct this blight on our society in the bloodiest war America has ever fought. White America has paid the price in white blood for the indiscretions of a former time.

    I have been the victim of reverse discrimination growing up in the east. I was in many fights because I was a white kid. Am I bitter? Absolutely not. I love seeing strong black families engaging in the community with fathers leading the way. With fathers leading the way.

    So what is the answer? Maybe the next time a police officer feels compelled to question a black person on the street, their anger be directed to the legions of black criminals who have programmed the police to act this way. Get mad at those in your race that have framed your people. Be upset at your neighbor who won’t help police solve the murder in your neighborhood because they dont want to be a snitch. Not at white society who has reelected a black president. It’s time for white guilt to end. Mine has. Time for the black society to stop blaming everyone and everything for its descent into darkness and look within itself. Have proper reactions to those who bring your own culture down and stop protecting criminals and thugs in your neighborhoods. I’m finished taking the blame for this. Black America must make use of the overwhelming opportunities in America.

  8. Hmmm... says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    Commie dirt bag. Nice. Incorrect, but nice.

    Atomic…blood is red. irregardless of the color of the skin.

  9. Mama Bear says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    Irregardless is not a word. It contains a double negative and means ‘not without regard’. The word you want is regardless.
    That being said, I agree with the sentiment.

  10. Justice says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    The current trouble being hyped up is directly a result of the family destroying welfare system and the resulting poverty pawns used for votes that it creates. The crime rate and prison rate for minorities is really a problem and it revolves around the same broken system of government poverty dependence. Nothing changes and it is getting worse. Where is the focus? Instead of trying to create a new way to administer and distribute the billions from this proven failure of a system it just gets larger and more unmanageable. People should laugh when the likes of King Hussein is seen saying we need to help the communists in Cuba when the poverty system of dependence in this country has doubled and this should be the concern, not adding more to it, but finding a way out of this growing country wrecking mess.

  11. Hmmm... says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    @Dog-You ARE racist and SELFISH. So am I. I could say it’s not totally our fault, I SHOULD say that. But it is my responsibility to deal with. Everybody who grows up in America is conditioned-by family, by language, by the media, by political discourse, by education, by the church, by our peers, by economics, by history to be racist and selfish. It takes introspection, education and courage recognize it, and to challenge it-daily. To not see that implies a blind spot a mile wide. Screech your “The Koch brothers and Ayn Rand had a love child and I am it” social and economic purity to St.Peter, Jesus, Maat or Hades or whatever the God of the Pigs is called when you finally pass from this world to whatever comes next.

    @business owner…let’s see…I went to public schools…I drive on publically funded roadways. I use the internets. If my house catches on fire I won’t stop the fire department. Guess I should change my opinions to match the 20th century definition of American success is. Personally, I think you’re an angry, prejudiced, judgmental, willingly misinformed idiot…er ah I mean ‘gentleman’.

    @MamaBear-thanks for the reminder…I mess that one up a lot.

  12. business owner says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    Nail on the head Atomic, well said.

  13. business owner says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    Once agian Hmmm you have demonstrated how irrelevant you are. Please continue your rants so folks can see who you are. I stick to my commie thug dirtbag comment describing you. Carry on…

  14. ljames says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    well, the tenor of the comments is clearly one of the problems – (1) race IS so divisive an issue (and really a taboo subject at present), it can’t even be discussed civilly. (2) It is an overwhelmingly complex issue in American society, and pointing to the extremes of both ends (black people that don’t make it despite public welfare and black and white people that do without public help (if we even want to concede that anyone gets through life unsubsidized?) does not shed any light on all those that lie between those two outcomes. [by the way you drive on roadways and bridges yes? and your kids were educated in public schools? most likely? used school vouchers to home school? maybe? have flown in a plane that lands at a public airport? Hiked in our local national forest? “we pay “”grotesque”” amounts of our income in taxes and mandatory insurances” clearly you don’t think you got value for your hard earned dollars?]

    Regardless, if you want to contemplate how deep racial issues are look at what Atomic wrote: “Time for the black society to stop blaming everyone and everything for its descent into darkness and look within itself” – “descent into darkness” – was Atomic clever enough to use that phrase as a pun? Maybe, maybe not? But we live in a predominant culture in which black and darkness are evil and light and white are good. This is no biological relationship – there is nothing inherently good about the color white and the color black – these predominantly are Judeo-Christian cultural concepts, and one should think a little about what it means to have the color of your skin be involved in such deep rooted associations.

    We should also question why the hell does anyone! (and this even includes President Obama himself perhaps) consider himself the first black president. He is not any more black than he is white! Well the reason is blackness in our culture is considered a taint. And if you are part black and don’t consider yourself so, the rest of society will for you – that my dear was in fact Obama’s personal journey if you read the book he wrote before he became president.

    You can have three white grandparents and one black grandparent and unless you are so light skinned people assume you are white, people are going to consider you black. In fact, the lighter a “black” person’s skin the more likely they are accepted by the general society. Do you really think Obama would have been elected if his skin was jet-black?? he is in fact America’s first half black president – we have yet to have a black one :)

    If you want to know the general effect of societal attitudes towards blacks on one’s opportunity, regardless of one’s behavior or personality or intelligence or upbringing, look at the history of “black” people that have passed themselves off as “white” in order to get ahead so to speak. You don’t see any white people trying to pass themselves off as black do you?, despite all the welfare benefits and reverse discrimination that is alluded to that you would think white’s would want to pass as as black?

    I would like to see all these race issue deniers (which I am willing to bet correlate well with climate change deniers for some strange reason) color their skin dark and go about your life for a year or two ala John Griffin. My guess is you would be in for a few eye openers and not as much has changed as we would like to think.

    None of this is meant to downplay the impact of growing up in many black communities and the state of many black subcultures (absent fathers, high crime rates, high unemployment, less access to loans and mortgages, less than ideal school environments, etc). The issue is how did these things come about. Yes, white people died in the Civil War, and many of those died because they felt that slavery was an evil, but you have to be a moron to not realize that half those people that died in the Civil War died because they were trying to protect the institution of slavery!! Their family and descendents are still with us as much as the abolitionists.

    And sorry to hit you with this, a significant percentage of civil war soldiers were drafted – not volunteers and even many of those against slavery had very little desire to live with blacks as equals – there were major movements to ship blacks back to Africa after the Civil War. Being against slavery (which also could have been a purely economic position as it was for most in Gold Rush California) did not automatically translate into wanting to give blacks equal opportunity and freeing slaves does not erase the psychological and sociological impact of that history on our current society, especially given the huge percentage of the population in 1860s America that had been slaves. We are still living with the fallout. Yes, our country does allow for and even lends much support to enable escaping the “ghetto” but if you are unfortunate enough to be born in one and to have dark skin, the deck is certainly stacked against you.

    PS – I almost forgot what made me first want to comment – it’s the fickleness of the American electorate to see what is on the news as the most important issue, so I am not surprised at the poll results and won’t be when that issue fades as fast as other once hot topics, like school shootings and school safety. That the majority of voters in the last election cited the economy as the major issue directing their vote and we did have a Republican landslide, well that should be a bit troubling to anyone that votes based on logic rather than deeply cherished beliefs that no facts can interfere with.

  15. Hmmm... says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    @business owner…thank you for sharing. Now I’m a ‘thug’ too(seems that on Faux Noise and the rest of the conservative culture machine ‘thug’ has become code for the ‘N-word’). Please, tell me more about myself…this is better than calling a late night tv psychic. Of course you stick to your comment. I’m thinking that your comment will stick to whoever is blind enough to step in it.

  16. cosa pescado says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    dawg you have bigoted tendencies. Please don’t try to play the ‘i’m a good example’ card.
    Racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, homophobia all come from the same disgusting place of fear and ignorance.

    As usual justass fails to provide any supporting evidence to anything they say. Its all empty rhetoric. Now that I started reading your comments in a south park style terrorist voice your comments are hilarious.

  17. business owner says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    Hmmm..take note. I disagree with alot of what ljames posted, but he made is points very intelligently and i/most people respect that. Also well said ljames.

  18. Dogula says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    Fish, you actually slipped once and admitted your disdain for white people. So I wouldn’t be calling somebody else a racist if I were you.
    Also, I believe you make all your money from the government. So you are also a big part of this country’s problems.
    Dependence on government being #1, if you boil it all down to its source. Welfare has created much of the racism/class warfare. Government overreach has created the us vs. them going on between police and civilians. People expecting government to fulfill their every need and desire has caused the outrageous tax and spend problem that frustrates people like me so badly. If we all looked to ourselves and our families for support instead of the almighty hand of government, most of these problems would not exist.

  19. Hmmm... says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    Thanks for the advice. It would have more credence to me were you to take note of it as well, given your initial reasoned and restrained assertion of my political persuasion. I quote your adjectives-“….commie, dirtbag, agitator, thug….” peace out.

  20. Kevin Murphy says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    Some people have had all the advantages of a father being a doctor, private schools and marrying a person from the same privileged class. Never a real worry about anything because a bailout is only a phone call away. Born on 3rd base and think they hit a triple. Some people really have no idea about real need, hunger or homelessness. I pity the husband.

  21. Hmmm... says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    Kevin…i think that ‘historical context’ has been deemphasised by the right AND by the media when looking at many issues, race and economics in particular. It as if those who don’t believe in a social contract want to pretend it never existed, that we live in some sort of Pollyannic vacuum. Six generations (150 years) removed from the supposed end of slavery is a drop in the bucket.

  22. Dogula says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    So, you still want to blame everything on history and luck rather than on ANY kind of personal responsibility? If your parents were poor, you will NEVER be able to amount to anything, you’re doomed to a life of failure without help from the almighty government? Yet if your parents are wealthy, nothing bad can ever happen, nothing will go wrong?
    Do you know how ridiculous your theory is?

  23. Kevin Murphy says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    I pity the husband.

  24. Kits Carson says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    We can thank the likes of Fish, Obama and his wife, Holder and especially Sharp-TONGUE and the rest for perpetuating racism in our country. They would have no reason to live if we all got along. SHARP TONGUE should have been arrested for enciting riots and the murders of Cops. Piece of Dung that he is.

  25. Hmmm... says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    Your words, Dog, not mine. Your theory, not mine. I’ve not blamed ‘everything’ on any one thing. I’m saying it is an oft ignored or de-emphasised factor. Perhaps reading comprehension is not your strong suit. See, it’s not ‘merely’ a race issue…it is a ‘class issue’ and an economic issue. In you last post you were describing a caste system, and that’s pretty close to how things were. We had a whole segment of our society who were considered to be ‘less than a person’. They were considered property. Tell me, how many generations from his reported Fall does your Lucifer/Satan’s influence upon the thought and behavior of some people extend? How many generations from his reported resurrection does your Jesus’s influence extend upon some people?

  26. cosa pescado says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    As usual, zero substance from the local conservatives.
    I made an ironic statement about old white men once, that’s *great* evidence there dog. Being ignorant and fearful enough to fall for hate propaganda is one thing, promoting it is another.
    Too bad Kits racist BS was deleted. From now on I taking screen shots.

  27. Justice says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    As usual and right on cue, angry leftists, have nothing to add except throwing the race card that last worked in 2008 and then the name calling, and ignorance. They are what is bringing this country down, millions at a time convinced they must take the government poverty program and be losers for life and angry. This country is better than this low class act by leftist fools who offer nothing but more of their insane ramblings of nothingness and putting more into this one way ticket poverty trap.

  28. legal beagle says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    Love to see the questions that elicited these responses. Wanna bet they weren’t push questions, i.e., very leading.

  29. business owner says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    Thank you justice.

  30. legal beagle says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    It is the combined Repubicrats and Demicans bringing our country down. And there ain’t no messiah on the horizon.
    Obama couldn’t do what he is doing without the support of the entire Democratic party and a heck of a lot of rinos and extremely rich business people and the chamber of commerce.

  31. business owner says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    Yep, beagle. And in the mean time they are stirring the pot getting us to fight eachother while they carry on indiscriminately running this runaway train towards a cliff while ensuring their profit and safety at the end of it.

  32. Dogula says - Posted: December 21, 2014

    Kevin Murphy, do you know my husband?
    Ask him if he needs your pity.

  33. cosa pescado says - Posted: December 22, 2014

    ‘ the name calling, and ignorance.’
    with no due respect you are the most ignorant name caller here. or at least one of them. a few people exceed your ignorance and a few of your like minded associates have engaged in far worse name calling. you are just the the total package.