A while back I posted about groups of people who continue to argue that Obama is ineligible to be president because he isn't a "natural born citizen" as the Constitution requires despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Well it turns out that the root of the issue may not be restricted to small groups of right-wing nuts. Scientific American is reporting on a study by Harvard professor Mahzarin Banaji that shows that white Americans on average found former British prime minister Tony Blair to be "more American" than Barak Obama. In the study people were asked to choose which one was more American after reading short bios on each person with attached pictures. Interestingly, British actor Hugh Grant was rated as more American than American reporter Connie Chung as well.
So maybe the birthers are simply people expressing a wide-spread deep-seated belief among white people that white and northern European equals American.
Psychology is such an interesting thing. It is amazing how much race can play into people's notion of "being American."
ReplyDelete