A new poll, conducted between March and June by Reuters/Ipsos, lends further credence to the idea that white Republicans are completely delusional about race—that is to say, racist.
The survey posed 21 questions on attitudes towards race to 16,000 Americans, including supporters of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders. Ted Cruz and John Kasich supporters were also surveyed, before their candidates dropped out of the presidential race.
According to Reuters, nearly half of Trump’s supporters described African Americans as more “violent” and more “criminal” than whites, while 40 percent described them as being more “lazy.”
Only 36 percent of Trump supporters agreed with the statement, “I prefer to live in a community with people who come from diverse cultures,” compared to 46 percent of Cruz supporters, 55 percent of Kasich supporters and 70 percent of Clinton supporters.
About 31 percent of Trump supporters said they “strongly agree” that “social policies, such as affirmative action, discriminate unfairly against white people,” compared with 16 percent of Clinton supporters.
That’s still an uncomfortably high proportion, though! As is the one-third of Clinton supporters who described black Americans as more “violent” and “criminal” than whites, and the one-quarter who described them as more “lazy.”
Meanwhile, 22 percent of Clinton supporters (nearly a quarter) thought white Americans were more intelligent than black Americans and 30 percent thought whites have better manners than blacks—compared to 32 percent and 42 percent of Trump supporters, respectively.
So. It could be worse.
