Live data from Hacker News

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

floatingsheep.org

41–50 of 106 posts

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

#41
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

95% of Black voters cast their ballot for Obama.

Walter Mondale got 90% of the black vote in '84. Do you know something about him I don't?

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

#42
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

95% of Black voters cast their ballot for Obama.

It's a little elevated but not much, I would guess any "reverse racism" going on is probably proportional or lesser than the people who didn't vote for Obama because he was black. Recall that black voters historically align with the Democrats in the 80-90% range anyways:

1984 Walter Mondale 90% Ronald Reagan 9%

1988 Michael Dukakis 90% George H.W. Bush 10%

1992 Bill Clinton 83% George H.W. Bush 10%

1996 Bill Clinton 84% Bob Dole 12%

2000 Al Gore 90% George W. Bush 9%

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

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

95% of Black voters cast their ballot for Obama.

Walter Mondale got 90% of the black vote in '84. Do you know something about him I don't?

Bill Clinton got "surprisingly low" percentages in the lower eighties. Black people vote for Democrats because Republicans fucked them in the past.

But no, white people vote for Romney because of the issues, black people vote for Obama because they are racist, Of course!

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

#44
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Here are quite a few examples... http://twitchy.com/2012/11/06/death-threats-against-mitt-rom...

That doesn't address the OP, though. Nor are they racist in nature.

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

#45
post #27

The problem I have with this is that it is needlessly stirring racial divides. 395 tweets out of ~120 million voters? Come on, do something positive for our country like mapping out the tweets of people still needing help from Sandy.

395 tweets out of

It's 395 geocoded tweets, not 395 tweets total across Twitter.

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

#46
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!"

Under which circumstances is it not racist?

Hip-hop lyrics where African Americans use it to describe each other?

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

#47
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.

Were the pundits referring to this interview?

   “The demographics race we’re losing badly,” said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.). “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-republican-convent...

I think my favourite comment I heard someone say to describe the Republicans demographics problem is when watching Romney's camp during election night:

"It looks like he's at a family reunion."

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

#48
post #37
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What about the people who voted for Romney because he is white? What kind of question is that even? Suddenly when it's a black guy THAT'S the issue. How brain dead. Wanting your kid to have positive black role models is not racist, no. That's a not very sophisticated but very valid and certainly not racist reason for voting for Obama that's entirely based on race.

What about the people who voted for Romney because he is white?

Those people are also racists, and frequently called racists. The double standard is issue here. White guy votes for a white guy because he's white means he's a racists. Black guy votes for a black guy because he's black means he's supporting change.

Worse yet, is that since I think Obama has done a horrible job and wouldn't vote for him, his supporters call me a racist. Sad state of affairs really.

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

#49

What about mapping tweets by black people saying they would riot if Romney won? Your "racism" is too small.

First of all, how do you filter by "black people" on Twitter? Second, the authors were probably grabbing all tweets that contained certain racial epithets. The word "riot" isn't racist.

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

#50
post #28
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm reluctant to link to them because they were all Drudge Report style aggregators of the type that are frowned upon by HN. Anyone curious can just Google "Romney win riots" and see for themselves. We're talking hundreds or thousands of tweets of this nature. To be honest, I'm not really bothered by either because it really just amounts to verbal graffiti. I don't think any of those tweeting were future black panthe…

There is a reason those are not acceptable sources...
Post reply on HN