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Mapping Racist Tweets in Response to President Obama's Re-election

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Re: Mapping Racist Tweets in Response to President Obama's Re-election

#11

Post by fnayr »

fnayr wrote: post #6
pingou wrote: post #2

That's interesting, but thankfully they only had 395 tweets so I wonder if you can get something really meaningful with a set of data so small. Looks like there's some correlation with Rommey's voting states though.

Of course it's correlated with the red states; when the person they didn't want to see win won, they said anything they could to degrade him. Certainly the n word is the easiest and most offensive word to throw out, but that doesn't necessarily imply racism. Though I'm not defending their use of that extremely offensive word, it's highly disingenuous to equate it to racism.

From wiki: "Racism is usually defined as views, practices and actions reflecting the belief that humanity is divided into distinct biological groups called races and that members of a certain race share certain attributes which make that group as a whole less desirable, more desirable, inferior or superior"

A frustrated exclamation of a horribly degrading word to express their anger != A view that African Americans are inferior.

It certainly doesn't show class and I'd bet you'd surely find a higher proportion of racists among those who tweeted that word, but calling them all racists? Wrong.

Re: Mapping Racist Tweets in Response to President Obama's Re-election

#12

Post by dogfu6 »

Well, on the flip side:

I heard multiple "The problem with Republicans is old white guys" comments on NPR and CNN. From respected "pundits" no less. Talk about your sexist, racist , ageist comments!

Substituting the words "Democratic" and "young" and "of color" sounds pretty silly.

I'm all for free speech, though. There will always be a noise component in political discourse and we Americans have pretty good filters.

Re: Mapping Racist Tweets in Response to President Obama's Re-election

#13

Post by yardie »

fnayr wrote: post #6
pingou wrote: post #2

That's interesting, but thankfully they only had 395 tweets so I wonder if you can get something really meaningful with a set of data so small. Looks like there's some correlation with Rommey's voting states though.

Of course it's correlated with the red states; when the person they didn't want to see win won, they said anything they could to degrade him. Certainly the n word is the easiest and most offensive word to throw out, but that doesn't necessarily imply racism. Though I'm not defending their use of that extremely offensive word, it's highly disingenuous to equate it to racism.

The n-word is not necessarily racist, if used in the right context. But given the context of most of these tweets it is absolutely used in racist tones, ie. "niggers in the whitehouse!"

Re: Mapping Racist Tweets in Response to President Obama's Re-election

#14

Post by AutoCorrect »

fnayr wrote: post #6
pingou wrote: post #2

That's interesting, but thankfully they only had 395 tweets so I wonder if you can get something really meaningful with a set of data so small. Looks like there's some correlation with Rommey's voting states though.

Of course it's correlated with the red states; when the person they didn't want to see win won, they said anything they could to degrade him. Certainly the n word is the easiest and most offensive word to throw out, but that doesn't necessarily imply racism. Though I'm not defending their use of that extremely offensive word, it's highly disingenuous to equate it to racism.

it was a very biased 'study'. from the article, it appears that this person specifically targeted people that were anti-Obama, forgetting entirely all the racists tweets that threatened riot and death if Romney won.

Re: Mapping Racist Tweets in Response to President Obama's Re-election

#16

Post by jedbrown »

omnisci wrote: post #7
troels wrote: post #3

This could have been interesting, but with a sample size of 395, I'm afraid the numbers are very unreliable.

If this was a full scientific study, I'd agree. Lets keep in mind that it isn't, and it's just a reflection of what was actually said. It isn't fair to draw conclusions from this such as "Alabama is a racist!?!?", but the data do still say something.

If data are to "say something", they must do so in a statistically rigorous sense. I'm not going to speculate on statistical significance in this particular case.

Re: Mapping Racist Tweets in Response to President Obama's Re-election

#17

Post by rpm4321 »

crusso wrote: post #10

Racism is deplorable, but weren't the threats to kill Romney if he won the election equally deplorable? http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-supporters-on-twitter-... What is any less hateful about them? "I'll personally f*****g kill Romney if he try's some dumb nazi s**t f**k that (sic)," I looked through floatingsheep's other recent blogs and they didn't cover that one. The problem I have with the lack of objectiv…

Agreed. It reminds me a bit of the fallacy of criminalizing "hate speech", which you are seeing in Europe lately. It actually gives the bigots a bit of a legitimate grievance, in that their freedom of speech is being eroded. Besides, personally, if someone is eager to inform me about what an idiot they are, I see no advantage in legally preventing them. I think the cult of political correctness has actually been quite damaging to race relations.

Re: Mapping Racist Tweets in Response to President Obama's Re-election

#18

Post by trebor »

rpm4321 wrote: post #17
crusso wrote: post #10

Racism is deplorable, but weren't the threats to kill Romney if he won the election equally deplorable? http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-supporters-on-twitter-... What is any less hateful about them? "I'll personally f*****g kill Romney if he try's some dumb nazi s**t f**k that (sic)," I looked through floatingsheep's other recent blogs and they didn't cover that one. The problem I have with the lack of objectiv…

Agreed. It reminds me a bit of the fallacy of criminalizing "hate speech", which you are seeing in Europe lately. It actually gives the bigots a bit of a legitimate grievance, in that their freedom of speech is being eroded. Besides, personally, if someone is eager to inform me about what an idiot they are, I see no advantage in legally preventing them. I think the cult of political correctness has actually been quit…

What about the people that voted for Obama—just because he's black? Isn't that racist too? What about the people who voted for Obama out of fear of being labeled racist? Isn't that blackmail?

I've no idea how widespread those cases are, but I do wonder.

Re: Mapping Racist Tweets in Response to President Obama's Re-election

#19

Post by revscat »

crusso wrote: post #10

Racism is deplorable, but weren't the threats to kill Romney if he won the election equally deplorable? http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-supporters-on-twitter-... What is any less hateful about them? "I'll personally f*****g kill Romney if he try's some dumb nazi s**t f**k that (sic)," I looked through floatingsheep's other recent blogs and they didn't cover that one. The problem I have with the lack of objectiv…

It is deplorable, but I am not sure how this is not a red herring. It's not even a statistical sample: it's a single case.

If you have counter evidence which shows a different geographic makeup, or otherwise addresses the claims made by the OP, then please share.

Re: Mapping Racist Tweets in Response to President Obama's Re-election

#20

Post by Angostura »

dogfu6 wrote: post #12

Well, on the flip side: I heard multiple "The problem with Republicans is old white guys" comments on NPR and CNN. From respected "pundits" no less. Talk about your sexist, racist , ageist comments! Substituting the words "Democratic" and "young" and "of color" sounds pretty silly. I'm all for free speech, though. There will always be a noise component in political discourse and we Americans have pretty good filters.

I's difficult to say from context whether that was meant in a racist manner. From a purely factual perspective it is true that GOP votes are older, whiter and male.
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