The survey was done over a two-week period almost entirely BEFORE the Northam blackface scandal was first reported.
Only 37% of Republicans thought blackface was unacceptable.
66% of black people feel that blackface is not acceptable, with an additional 16% in the “not sure / don’t know” group.
And yet …
The majority of Republicans are calling for Northam to resign, and the vast majority of black people believe he should not. I reckon our ethical standards are highly fluid.
It would be interesting and useful to take the exact same poll again now, which would allow the pollsters to establish an hypocrisy index.
Interestingly, white Democrats have not been hypocritical as a group. They said that blackface was unacceptable, declaring so in almost the same percentage as black people, and they have also broadly called for Northam to step down.
It depends on the definition of “Blackface”. If it is only the racist vaudeville type it is clearly bad, but it’s hard to think of Anthony Hopkins, Orson Welles, Ronald Coleman, and Lawrence Olivier as racist because they played Othello.
Part of the problem is the media outlets reporting online outrage (or lack of outrage) as if it were news. It’s not news. It’s just anonymous idiots like me with an opinion. Why can’t this Virginia thing just play out, and wait till after the investigations until we start firing people? The social justice mobs have way too much influence nowadays, and ironically, they’re one of main reasons many of us were motivated to vote for Trump in the first place.
I think the reason for the discrepancy for Republicans is due to the obvious hypocrisy. Liberals, who once touted free speech, have become the party of intolerance or zero tolerance. While the overwhelming number of sane conservatives think PC culture has gone too far, time and time again those responsible for the blatant acts of sexism and racism are democrats. Therefore, although republicans aren’t outraged if a white man darkens his skin to dress up as a black man for Halloween, then northam should resign. The same goes for Justin Fairfax. After what was done to Kavanaugh, with a presumption of guilt until proven innocent on far older and unsubstantiated claims, Dems should be calling for Fairfaxs head. But yet there is no Alyssa Milano or people chanting “we believe survivors”.