America still racist (suprise, surprise).

Well... this is interesting.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks — many calling them "lazy," "violent," responsible for their own troubles.

The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004 — about two and one-half percentage points.

Certainly, Republican John McCain has his own obstacles: He's an ally of an unpopular president and would be the nation's oldest first-term president. But Obama faces this: 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, and that includes many Democrats and independents.

More than a third of all white Democrats and independents — voters Obama can't win the White House without — agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks, according to the survey, and they are significantly less likely to vote for Obama than those who don't have such views.

Here's my polling question: is anyone really that surprised? You only have to take a glance through the ADL's website to realise that America still has a long way to go in resolving her race problem.

However, neither party will address it. The Democrats can't because Obama will look as if he's playing the race card. The Republicans won't because it detracts from their mindless " 'Merica, 'Merica, 'Merica, ra ra ra!" rhetoric that they love so much.

Racism won't be solved if Obama becomes President. It won't be solved if (sadly, not when) a public apology is made on behalf of Euro-America to Afro-America and Native America for the former's crimes of slavery and genocide against the latter two. It can only be solved when every American of every colour, gender, class and orientation looks into their core and asks themselves "What is wrong with American bigotry?" before asking "What can I do?"

Racism will be solved when a black guy can walk down the streets of New York City and pull out his wallet without being shot 40 times in the chest. It will be solved when politicians no longer resort to fear-mongering to win elections at the cost to the social fabric. It will be solved when the combined number of every neo-Nazi, KKK, skinhead and generic racist and anti-Semitic organisation's numbers hit zero.
Anything else is delusion.

As Jasmyne Cannick puts it:

White women still clutch their purses when Black men and women are near them and white people still falsely accuse Blacks of committing crimes because it’s an easy out. Hell—they’ve done such a good job on us, there are plenty of Blacks who share the same feelings of whites about Blacks—yes their own people!

Like white men in the White House, these polls come a dime a dozen and don’t do anything but create an outlet for the mainstream news to bring up the subject of race relations as breaking news—when it’s not. We know exactly how we feel about each other, we know exactly who we are voting for and why. And whether or not the candidates address race relations, we know that race has as much to do with our vote as the economy and the war in Iraq.

Tell me something I don’t know—like why we fall for this crap every time.

And just to be fair—here are some adjectives, nouns, and verbs that have been used to describe whites by Blacks:

P.W.T., trailer park trash, oppressive, backstabbers, selfish, greedy, racist, jealous, hateful, slackers, corrupt, culture bandits…

Icould go on, but you get the point.