Study: North Dakota high in rate of racist election tweets
November 14, 2012 at 11:48 pm in Grand Forks Herald
According to a group of researchers who crunch online geographic data, the state was among the national leaders in the rate of racist messages on Twitter posted before and after President Barack Obama’s re-election. Continue Reading
North Dakota had one racist tweet following the reelection of President Obama…. and that puts us as among the “leaders in the rate of racial messages.”??? Wow. We have a huge problem on our hands here people.
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The number was a “location quotant” and it was 3.5. This number doesn’t represent anything except a formula–it’s to be used as a relative comparison with other states. It doesn’t identify the exact number of racist tweets.
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Exactly, but when you look up the raw data used to compute the “location quotient” you will find that there were a total of 385 racist tweets in the entire nation. And exactly one of those 385 originated in North Dakota in the Minot area. Now, in no way am I condoning racism, but the frequency is so seldom that it makes comparing a quotient meaningless.
It is akin to selling millions of lottery tickets in dozens of states, and then when a person from State X wins, saying the “location quotient” of lottery winners in State X is high, but is zero on all the other states where tickets were sold. The frequency is just too small to establish reliable ratios. It’s been a long time since my Statistics 320 class back in the day, but I hope you can understand my point.
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Considering the tweets came from MInot, were the tweets from a native North dakotan or someone from the oilfields who came from somewhere else?
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ND is not a hotbed of racism; xenophobia yes, but not necessarily racism. There is a difference.
That said, we are far from being pure as the driven snow. Look at the comments regarding the TB outbreak during the early days & we clearly showed our dark underbelly.
Using racial epitaphs is not what makes you racist. It is the thoughts & attitudes that produced those expressions that get you in trouble.
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I would like him to run this using Romney and cracker or Mormon or whitey. Would be interesting to see the results.
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That isnt news though.
That doesnt stir people up.
We need articles printed everyday to remind us white folk that we are evil and if it werent for us the world would be a better place.
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Hyperbole again Captain. No one said we are evil or that the world would be better without us.
We continually remind people that we do not need special protection because we by and large still make the rules. The playing field is skewed in our favor.
That is changing. As I said before, come back in 25 years and you will see a NAACP for white people demanding our spot at the table and access to a free translator because everyone speaks Spanish and we can’t understand it.
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I disagree.
It is not an exaggeration.
This nation suffers from White guilt something fierce and anyone with eyes can see it.
If you are not White, people will walk on eggshells to not offend you.
Its clear as day.
That doesnt make racist rants okay, i’m just saying that people can and do direct racist attitudes towards whites as well even though most will tell you thats not possible.
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Capt… I’d like to know what it is about this post that so many folks thought was “thumbs down” worthy. Its nothing but the absolute truth. And therein lies the problem. People are simply too ignorant nowadays to SEE the truth. They base their judgements on emotion rather than reality…thus, creating stories in newspapers about absolutely nothing. For what its worth…we’re still free to be racist in this country right? Notice I said “be” and not “act” . Although I believe true racism to be horrible, I also believe that folks are free to be racist. Because otherwise, we start getting laws that see simple disagreements as racist and you end up with, oh, I don’t know…a society like we are currently living in! PC speak rules the day, and whenever someone has their feelings hurt, they simply imply racism and their concerns are addressed post haste. Personally I believe those idiots that can’t let go of race do more damage than anyone is willing to admit…Racism is one of those issues that needs to be left be at some level…kinda like dead horses and sleeping dogs. OTherwise, if the wound is constantly picked at, it will never heal. Rant over…
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Someone did Glen. I do not remember who. The results were on Huffington Post believe it or not.
Mormon and cult got a huge number of hits.
Whitey and Cracker not so much.
I refer to myself as the ultimate cracker all the time, but I don’t tweet so I did not skew the result.
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I wonder why anyone is finding this surprising. I didn’t.
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This is why racism will never die.
We pay way too much attention to the one or two people who made derogatory comments and ignore the other 100 million people that didnt.
If you ignore them they will go away….. just a thought.
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Bingo
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When you leave because you do not like what a person says…. you just strengthen their position. It is best to confront what you do not agree with.
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of course im wrong.
Any time you disagree with my position i am automatically wrong.
I guess the sticks and stones mantra is a bunch of hooey right?
I guess every time we get called a name we should make a big deal out of it and confront them and let a fight ensue?
Ever here the phrase, the bigger man just walks away?
Had this article never been written or had the tweets been ignored we wouldnt be talking about it today.
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Edmund Burke: All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
So you are telling me the next time someone someone uses the N word they should be encouraged to continue? How about the C word in reference to women? If your teenager came home complaining that instead of knowing their place, fa$& now think it is ok to hold hands & kiss in public “like normal people” do you call them on it or agree?
Silence is assent.
Remember ACT UP during the early days of the AIDS crisis? The pink triangle with SILENCE = DEATH?
It was correct.
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“the bigger man walks away” and that would be Gene … because it sure wouldn’t apply to the flying nurse. Gene is real nurse. There is nothing fake about him. You should be shamed of yourself for implying he is. You had to win though. Friendship was thrown to the curb.
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I would say there is a combination of racism and ignorance in this area of the country. You have people that are not exposed to diversity because of the racial demographics they grow up around (white northern european in these parts). You will hear a lot of slurs from people that are not corrected because there is no one of the race to offend. If you grow up around or are exposed to a racially diverse area you learn to watch what you say because these slurs can get your ars kicked. The second half of the formula are just the plain racist that you will find everywhere.
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Was expressing dismay over Obama’s re-election what they, who ever they are, were counting? Getting awfully tired of hearing “racist” or “discrimination” because I don’t agree with someone.
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Wolfie: if you don’t routinely use racial epitaphs or draw conclusions based off of extraneous data such as skin color they probably are not talking about you.
The tweet count was based off of racially charged words. So if you tweeted “America is doomed, I’m moving to Brazil,” you were not counted.
Because Barry is African American, race is in the forefront. I was not a big fan of Alan West. I am glad he is gone. I think America is a better place without him in congress.
My views are based on policy, not skin color.
As long as your’s are too, you are Golden
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Sorry you are wrong on this one. I have been called a racist over and over again for one reason and one reason only; I did not vote for President Obama. According to the left the only reason that could possibly be is because I am a racist. I does not matter that I have never voted Democrat for president because I didn’t this time I am a racist. Nothing makes me hate the left more than that.
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My experience it that the left does not want to discuss anything. If you don’t agree with them lock step without question they stick their fingers in their ears and scream “RACIST RACIST RACIST” over and over like a little child who does not even want to hear what you have to say their mind is so closed and weak they can not stand the possibility of a thought.
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Jeez, Glen. Who do you hang out with? I can’t even imagine (a) disparaging anyone about how they voted, and (b) asking anyone how they voted. So you must be proclaiming your voting preference in a way that prompts people to call you a racist. Let me give you an example: you go to work and say, “Well, I just came from the polls after voting for the only real American on the ballot, Mitt Romney. I wouldn’t ever vote for a Democrat especially THIS one who claims to have been born in the United States”. Then I could understand if people called you a racist. But why, if you didn’t make racist statements like those above, would anyone with any sense call you that? Like I said, if what you say is true, then you need better friends.
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Nope conversation is more like, “Did You vote”. “Yes”. “Whod ya vote for?” ” Romney this time”. “Ah so you are one of those racists”.
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Oh and one other thing, I don’t care where Obama was born. It does not matter because any person born to a woman that is an American, no matter where they are born are legally a “natural born American Citizen”. That was decided by SCOTUS in the 1950′s. So it does not matter where Obama was born. That entire thing was more of an invention of the press making a huge story out of a bunch of nuts, most of them not even Republicans.
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I own a spear and I occasionally like to go out and chuck it. I wonder what that makes me?
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A javalin thrower??
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Considering maybe only 20% of North Dakotans use twitter, is this figure really that reliable?
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I’m surprised its that high
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Is your 20% really reliable?
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No. Its a generous guess based on the amount of people I know who actually use Twitter. I’m not trying to dismiss the racism. I just think the data might be a bit skewed.
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Flyingnurse…blah, blah, blah…….blah,blah,blah !!!!
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Why the heck is paying to do this stupid research to find this out???
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I would not refer to this as research. It is a non scientific review of twitter posts nothing scientific about it.
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It is a little strange that any time the question of racism and this president comes up that it seems to become a very defensive issue as if its wrong to suggest that it actually still exists. As if there are not people on the right who really do base all their anti Obama crap on the fact that he’s a black man in the White House and nothing else. Even the language used on the right wing media when discussing most things he does often have significant underline messages that you often don’t think of consciously, but are there none the less.
Maybe some of you on the right really are not bigots and are offended, but the problem is that there’s been a hell of a lot of race baiting on the right, and that’s helped stir up the nut jobs to a fevered pitch as in MS after the election. To see that and get angry about references to bigotry on the right is running with blinders
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I am sure there are a small number of people in the country on both the left and right who do just that(some in the middle also). I remind you the Democrats opposed freeing slaves, founded the KKK and passed hundreds or laws that fell under the caption of “Jim Crow”. The Republican party has a long history of working to create opportunity of everyone. Now you do need to out compete the next guy there is no right to success. In the 60′s the Democrats had a huge internal war to confront the racism in their party. Civil rights laws would not have passed had not the Republicans backed them. It was numerous Democrats who strongly opposed them and also strongly backed them. Some say this is about reparations for the actions of our ancestors. If so then how far back do we go? Every race could then claim victim status as could every religion or non believer.
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As FN has pointed out…..Those bigots left the Dems after Johnson pushed the civil rights act. As far as they were concerned it was him and the other Dems so your team got them…Otherwise I too would be a Republican if that bunch had turned the Dems into what they’ve turned the Republicans into…..Huh? I wonder if you would still be a Republican if the Dixicrats stayed in the Dem party. Or would their religious fevor drawn you in?
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Some moved to the Republican party but not most. The huge majority of them are simply dead because it was over 50 yrs ago. As far as your question about party I have never been treated with more hate, intollrence and bigotry than by members of the Democrat party. I have seen them resort to violence at the drop of a hat. I was even run out of a conference, that had nothing to do with politics, because of my party choice. ( was known by several others attending I did not bring it up or say anything) In my experience the Democrat party is the party of intolerance and hate. It is inclusive only if you do not think and just follow along with the party line independent thought is not allowed. That has been my experience with the Democrat party. The only way that opinion will change is if I witness a change in the actions of that party and its members. Remember I said the actions NOT the policies or positions.
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Maybe what you and other right wingers are experiencing is something new and scary. The Dems actually saying “Enough of the BS” For way too long the right with the foxing heads as their lead talking point have been coming accross as self rightous tough talking thugs. For too long Dems tried to be very tolerant, but when you hold out your hand in peace only to get it bit time and again, your say enough is enough and fight fire with fire. I find it amuzing that the party that’s been doing this very thing at a fevered pictch since Regan is suddenly yelling “Foul” when the left puts their foot down and wont take it.
We saw the very scary ideas of the neocons, and we aren’t going to take it anymore…
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In both my experience and in history it is the left that resorts to violence to force their views on others. You seem to be an example of exactly what I have experienced with the Democrats. Imagine being run out of a professional conference that is not a political conference or rally, because you will not wear a Clinton reelection pin.
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I guess I skimmed over that…I have no idea what that was all about if it wasn’t political in the first place. Strange indeed.
Your assessment of the Dems is exactly what a lot of us have been saying about the actual violence that has been coming from the right….Especially the severe right. I don’t know where you’ve come across this on the left, but I venture to guess it was probably younger people who seem to be ratcheting things up a bit on both sides.
A couple old geezers like you and I would most likely have a bit of a debater over coffe that would eventually end up being a discuaaion about the weather forecast or something after a bit. I don’t know about you, but as I get older, I just don’t stay that engaged in all the debate for a long time any more. It’s like you say your bit, and listen to the other, and then there’s not much more to say in reality. I guess pundits keep this pitch up because there’s big money involved, but I sure couldn’t. If I listen to any of them I’m turing within 20 minutes or less usually
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All we need to do is get racism declared a disability by the democrats so they can come out of the closet on this.
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Bottom line: the headline is very misleading. If you don’t read the article, you might think there were a lot more tweets. No one here is saying that tweeting racially charged messages is ok, but the headline makes it sound like there is an epidemic. Reading the article leads me to believe that just isn’t true.
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Racism comes from ignorance and there is ignorance everywhere. MN didn’t fair so well in this regard either. The vast majority of people are not racist but there are always some outliers who, for some reason, seem to have the need to demean others based on arbitrary criteria. It may be that they don’t feel so good about themselves and have to look down on others to elevate themselves in their own eyes. It comes from an ignorant minority and shouldn’t reflect negatively on the majority of good people.
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Other than the way they were brought up, I think a lot of bigots have that ignorance because they’ve just never spent much time getting to know anyone who wasn’t white. As a kid I spent time with kids of migrant workers and some who moved from reservations, and some who were from the base (Which was pretty much the bulk of African Americans in the area back then). My folks were’t actual bigots, but they were ignorant too because they often cautioned me to watch myself around such kids….Hell….We were just a bunch of kids have a good time doing rough and dangerous kid things back in the 60′s What the hell did we know about not mixing it up? The real danger was trying to top each other when it came to daring one and other to do some really “Bright” idea…
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