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Obama rubs the Hortons the wrong way because they think he's arrogant. It's the same thing you hear from voters in a lot of the parts of the country where Obama's infamous remarks about bitterness would probably also apply. But that's not his only problem in rural West Virginia. "They won't go for a black man, that's just it," R.K. Horton, a retired heating and air conditioning business owner, said of his neighbors. "I don't think it's being racist necessarily, they just don't like black people that well." For that matter, it's not just his neighbors. "The arrogance and all that bothers me more than black, but black is a close second," he said. "Our generation was back when blacks were the back of the bus, and it's hard to change that outlook. I just feel like I couldn't vote for him."

-- from Can Barack Obama win in West Virginia? in Salon

Date: 2008-05-13 07:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kate-schaefer.livejournal.com
Yes, of course it's a racist attitude. And also of course saying that something is better than it used to be is not to say that it's good, or that it can stop there, or that it's close to okay.

Date: 2008-05-13 07:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] randy-byers.livejournal.com
By the way, here's some more nuance from a WV electoral projection by Poblano (which I discovered via DailyKos):

I do want to write a little bit more about the notion that West Virginians are racist. The longer version will have to wait until later today or tomorrow. But the short version is: yes, there are racist voters in West Virginia, but there are racist voters in every state. The primary determinant of the extent to which racism tends to be more manifest is education levels, and so the effects may be more noticeable in West Virgnia, a state with poor academic achievement. But there is no reason to believe that West Virgnians are particularly racist, relative to their education levels.

Date: 2008-05-13 10:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] smofbabe.livejournal.com
I suspect that Mr Horton defines "racist" as meaning that you hate black people rather than just thinking they're inferior. As you say, it's an attitude that takes a very long time and some personal circumstances to change.

Date: 2008-05-13 10:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] randy-byers.livejournal.com
Ah, that's a very succinct way to put it. He explicitly opposes "racist" with "not liking that well," so it would make sense that racist=hatred in his formula, with "not liking that well" being less extreme in his view.

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