As I understand it, Claudia is busy writing a post about the West Virginia primary right now. Many people already blame racism for Clinton’s victory. Although racism may certainly have played a role, it’s important to point out – me thinks – that the results in W.V. weren’t very different from the results in other states, in so far as the white vote is concerned: ‘The West Virginia exit polls indicate that he lost white voters 69-28. Astounding? Not really. In Ohio, Clinton won white voters 64-34. In Pennsylvania, Clinton won whites 63-37. Indiana? Whites went for Clinton 60-40. Massachusetts? Whites went for Clinton 58-40. Rhode Island? 63-31 for Clinton. North Carolina? 61-37. And the same in Arkansas, Tennessee, Maryland, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma, Arizona, Missouri and so on.’
The difference, then? Black voters. Obama wins the black vote, normally, with 80 even 90% of the total black votes cast. West Virginia, however, has a reasonably small African-American community. That explains the difference in total %.
In short, West Virginia’s results do not ‘prove’ that the US still has a racism problem, they merely prove that Obama has a white working class problem.
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