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> By telephone and online, the group surveyed a thousand American adults, with this question: "Do you agree or disagree with this statement, 'It's OK to be whit

> By telephone and online, the group surveyed a thousand American adults, with this question: "Do you agree or disagree with this statement, 'It's OK to be white'?" The report found that 72% of the respondents agreed, including 53% who are Black I have to be honest and say this unsettles me a little. The rebuttal I’ve seen is that “it’s okay to be white” is a racist meme from 4chan, which invalidates the results. But that seems to suggests that all the respondents were aware that it’s a racist catchphrase. I spend a lot of time on the internet, and I wasn’t aware. Further, 72% of the total respondents responded in the affirmative- is the theory that these respondents were not aware of the racist connotation?

joemazerino 4y ago
Labeling every counter signal a dog whistle is a far-left tactic to discredit valid arguments. Ignore them.
Volundr 4y ago
I would be very torn on how to respond to a survey that asked me if I agree with "All lives matter". On the face it's clearly a true statement, almost tautological, but it's commonly used with tons of subtext I disagree with. Let's say for a moment everyone feels exactly like me, and a poll get a 50/50 split. Or 25/75. Or 90/10. You haven't really learned anything about people's attitudes beyond how literally they chose to interpret the question. That's what people are saying with this question. It's too loaded for a simple yes no. Saying the 72% who agreed aren't aware of the connotation is just an invalid conclusion as any other. No doubt at least some of them pondered it, and decided to respond to the literal text. There's too much gray here to draw ANY conclusions from the poll.
- BaculumMeumEst 4y ago
  thanks for the perspective
rsynnott 4y ago
> But that seems to suggests that all the respondents were aware that it’s a racist catchphrase > Further, 72% of the total respondents responded in the affirmative- is the theory that these respondents were not aware of the racist connotation? I... think you're answering your own question? Let's assume the simplest case, where everyone who thinks the phrase is innocent answers yes, and everyone who's aware of the context of the phrase answers no. In that case, if 28% of respondents are aware of the context, then the result is what you'd expect. (In practice it'll be a bit messier than that; some will know the phrase and answer yes, some won't but will answer no anyway, and frankly some will be baffled by the question, which tends to increase poll noise.) In general, this is absolutely incompetent poll design; you can't really get anything from it.
jfengel 4y ago
Quora has a "space" (roughly equivalent to a subreddit) called "It's OK to be White". It's full of Nazis. I don't mean Godwin's Law Nazis, or even just run-of-the-mill antisemites. I mean literal fuhrer-saluting, swastika-wearing, genocide-advocating Nazis. That's what the space is for. It has thousands of followers. That's certainly what they think "it's OK to be white" means. I'm not black and couldn't speak for what black people hear, but it doesn't surprise me that a racist catchphrase is well-known to the targets of racism and less well known outside of that. It's certainly well-known on Quora; anybody who spends significant time on that site sooner or later runs into material from that space.

joemazerino 4y ago

Labeling every counter signal a dog whistle is a far-left tactic to discredit valid arguments. Ignore them.

Volundr 4y ago

I would be very torn on how to respond to a survey that asked me if I agree with "All lives matter". On the face it's clearly a true statement, almost tautological, but it's commonly used with tons of subtext I disagree with. Let's say for a moment everyone feels exactly like me, and a poll get a 50/50 split. Or 25/75. Or 90/10. You haven't really learned anything about people's attitudes beyond how literally they chose to interpret the question. That's what people are saying with this question. It's too loaded for a simple yes no. Saying the 72% who agreed aren't aware of the connotation is just an invalid conclusion as any other. No doubt at least some of them pondered it, and decided to respond to the literal text. There's too much gray here to draw ANY conclusions from the poll.

BaculumMeumEst 4y ago
thanks for the perspective

rsynnott 4y ago

> But that seems to suggests that all the respondents were aware that it’s a racist catchphrase > Further, 72% of the total respondents responded in the affirmative- is the theory that these respondents were not aware of the racist connotation? I... think you're answering your own question? Let's assume the simplest case, where everyone who thinks the phrase is innocent answers yes, and everyone who's aware of the context of the phrase answers no. In that case, if 28% of respondents are aware of the context, then the result is what you'd expect. (In practice it'll be a bit messier than that; some will know the phrase and answer yes, some won't but will answer no anyway, and frankly some will be baffled by the question, which tends to increase poll noise.) In general, this is absolutely incompetent poll design; you can't really get anything from it.

jfengel 4y ago

Quora has a "space" (roughly equivalent to a subreddit) called "It's OK to be White". It's full of Nazis. I don't mean Godwin's Law Nazis, or even just run-of-the-mill antisemites. I mean literal fuhrer-saluting, swastika-wearing, genocide-advocating Nazis. That's what the space is for. It has thousands of followers. That's certainly what they think "it's OK to be white" means. I'm not black and couldn't speak for what black people hear, but it doesn't surprise me that a racist catchphrase is well-known to the targets of racism and less well known outside of that. It's certainly well-known on Quora; anybody who spends significant time on that site sooner or later runs into material from that space.