Racial divides are here to stay. hell even among the so called learned we have on mydd , we see the comments that if you oppose Obama you must a be a racist.

But notwithstanding all of that , the numbers in the abc poll are still masked.  Many AA's and whites are polling much lower because they are psychologicaly identifying that question w/ this elections...

i.e w must not harbor racial divides because "look they are voting for a black president"  
(in the case of AA's )  or look I'm voting for a black president so I must not harbor such divide ( in case of white America).

In other words both sides have masked the true numbers of divide.  And especially among the AA community...

I agree to a large extent.  While I might modify that to "demographic blind", the general point is well taken.

Another commentor and I have been discussing this in the past day or two.  My view is that we are emerging from a period where it is an accepted belief that everyone is exactly the same, which itself is a reaction to an historic attitude that everyone of a given group is exactly the same.  In reality, demographic group do have characteristics that need to be acknowledged if we are to both address negative biases and more broadly understand how sociology works for every purpose, and the fact that a group can have characteristics does not in any way indicate that an individual who is a member of that demographic has any of the demographic characteristics.

I am as much a part of the age of anti-stereotyping as anyone so I have my own ingrained flinches at this sort of discussion, but regardless cannot deny that the characteristics of demographic groups are real (as in the linked discussion, this is not in any way to characterize individuals).  

The biggest problem imho with the specifics of this black/white issue is that the demographics are still entirely too broad for most purposes.  "White people" is too broad for most any use, for example.  There is little pragmatic similarity across all the granular demographics that group-title encompasses (if you think you understand "white people" you are bound to be confused when talking with members of both the "white blue collar Evangelical Apalachian" and the "white urban upper-middle-class liberal Manhattenite" demographics).

Demographic groups do have characteristics, and both ignoring them and applying them to individuals are misplaced approaches.

Nature teaches us a lesson in all of this.  Bunny rabbits discriminate against cats by default because they tend to be eaten by them.  But a given bunny rabbit can be best friends with a given cat based on personal experience of the characteristics of that cat. We have just such a pair of mammals here (to keep this a family diary I will not detail what the rabbit does to the cat...).  Our individual bunny rabbit's behavior does not contradict the general statement that "bunny rabbits fear cats", it clarifies the statement that "individuals do not always cleave to demographic trends".

-chris

Yep.  Same deal here with a former foster kid (AA) getting nailed at school for stuff that the bio kid (Cauc) invented

I started researching on my own and found out that a guy named "Cone" came up with "black liberation theology." According to him, if white people "that have all the power" want to become Christians, they have to give up their power. <--- That's crazy talk IMO.