Filed under: News, Politics, Race and Civil Rights
In a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling, whose function is to "put out highly accurate polling on key political races across the country," according to its website, 46 percent of Mississippians believe that interracial marriage should be illegal.
The poll also reveals that the majority of the poll participants are male (53 percent), very conservative (40 percent) and between the ages of 45 and 65 (36 percent).
One commenter wrote:
"I believe God made us a different color for a reason and should be honored by not marrying outside of the race that God picked for me, however the color of one's skin does not make him/her better than another color."
Right.
But before I even consider Mississippi's fascination with all things Jim Crow, let's explore the premise of the poll in the first place. The goal of the poll is to identify which Republican candidate Mississippians would vote for in the 2012 presidential election.
The infamously controversial Governor Haley Barbour is invariably the state's favorite among ignorant-media-whore Sarah Palin, the God-righteous Mike Huckabee, the-Mormon-most-refuse-to-embrace Mitt Romney, the-incessant-adulterer Newt Gingrich, I-think-the-founding-fathers-ended-slavery Michele Bachman, cap-and-trade-flip-flopper Tim Pawlenty and I-don't-believe-in-civil-rights Ron Paul.
What a lovely bunch.
So how on earth did Director and pollster Tom Jensen come up with that question? I mean, after asking about whether participants had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the named candidates and how they identified themselves, why ask whether they are for interracial marriage?
Is it because our President is the product of an interracial union? Is it because they consciously wanted to rile people up? Is it because, he, himself, or Public Policy, is biased on the issue to begin with? I just have a difficult time focusing on the actual poll, when this reeks of someone's shameless effort for media attention.
And if I am to focus on the findings of this poll at all, are we really surprised to see that Barbour, known for saying he doesn't think the slavery conversation is important, would be the front runner in this state? Or what about his equally progressive brother, Jeppie, who lit-er-ally said:
"I guess they're [blacks] just goin' through a state of being rebellious and hard-nosed and not listenin' to white people like they used to."
I wish I was making this up.
Good ole Mississippi, the state where Medgar Evers was murdered. Good ole Mississippi, the state where three civil rights workers were killed by the Ku Klux Klan. Good ole Mississippi, the state where after President Obama won the 2008 election, racial slurs and bigotry reigned supreme.
One thing the poll did make clear, though, is that the racism of the past largely lives with the old. I just hope that once much of that embattled generation passes away, they will take their archaic mind-set about interracial relationships with them.
But I won't hold my breath.