I actually find the Mississippi poll results on interracial marriage way more disturbing...

[TheWraith]

...than the fact that most MS Republicans think Obama is a Muslim. Why? Simply put, in the right-wing propaganda bubble it's no doubt really easy to believe any and all shit about Obama. Particularly if you're a racist, which let's face it: you wouldn't be a Republican in Mississippi if you weren't a racist.

But the fact that 50% of them openly believe that interracial marriage should be banned by law, that's way more disturbing. Because this isn't some recent smear campaign, or even something silly sounding from a couple decades ago like claiming Clinton had his enemies murdered. This is something that's been firmly discredited as racist, obnoxious, and borderline insane for around 40 years now. The bans have been unconstitutional for almost half a century. A lot of those MS Republicans probably aren't even old enough to really remember a time when interracial marriage was banned, and yet they're damn well sure it should be, even living in a national culture which has broadly accepted the fact that that belief system is both incredibly ignorant and unacceptable.

[Warpy]

1. Face it, the rural south is still stuck in the 1920s

with the rights of women, blacks, and others simply not recognized nor enforced by law, and the good ole boys at the top like it that way.

So if you're a white male with enough money to keep you out of po' white trash status, those two states are your paradise, especially if you hate women enough to want to marry one and turn her into your house slave while black men sharecrop your land and make you prosper as they keep themselves barely hanging on.

The urban south has progressed quite a lot. Once you get outside the city limits, you're transported back into a very ugly time. And no one seems to want to pull them forward.

[zappaman]

2. As one half of a couple in an interracial marriage

I wholeheartedly agree.

[RZM]

3. McCain won 88 percent of the white vote in Mississippi in 2008

Obama got 11 percent. Does that mean you think that at least 88 percent of white voters in Mississippi are racist? If you think every Republican in the state is a racist, the overall number has to be even higher, because I imagine at least some of the Democrats are too, not to mention the nonvoters as well.

[TheWraith]

4. For certain some of the Democrats are racist too.

Here in rural western New York, we lost a bunch of Democratic voters in 2008 who wouldn't vote for a black person. I imagine it's even worse in MS.

As far as demographics go, I'd imagine that the overwhelming majority of Republican voters in MS are racist to a greater or lesser extent, which seems to be backed up by that poll which showed that only 12% were sure Obama wasn't a Muslim.

[RZM]

5. I don't doubt that the number of Missippians who actually think he's a Muslim is high

But I'm skeptical about what some of them would tell a pollster. I think it's partly a manifestation of not liking him, as well as the idea that a 'true' Christian is only a certain type of devout protestant. I met a woman once here in Ohio who said that Martin Luther King Jr. wasn't 'really' a Christian because he committed adultery and thus would not be admitted to the kingdom of heaven.

So to some people 'Christian' means not just saying you are one, but living up to whatever arbitrary criteria they themselves impose. Plenty would probably say that Romney isn't a Christian either.

[HockeyMom]

6. Pecisely why the PEOPLE should not determine Civl Rights

Racial or otherwise.

[freshwest]

7. Yes, that's a trip back in time. Or maybe it's the place where time stood still, or something.

Did they somehow miss the sixties, etc.?

[Uncle Joe]

20. Depending on the poll Mississippi attitudes are equivalent to that of the U.S. in the 80s or 90s.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/28417/most-americans-approve-interracial-marriages.aspx



________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/03/ppp-poll-gop-voters-in-al-ms-think-obama-is-muslim-unsure-about-interracial-marriage.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

"Interracial marriage laws were overturned by the Supreme Court in 1967, but a significant minority of Mississippi and Alabama apparently still long for their return, or are at least ambivalent about the idea. In Alabama, 67 percent of respondents said interracial marriage should be allowed, but 21 percent said it should be illegal and another 12 percent were not sure. Mississippi Republican voters were even more divided: Only 52 percent said such marriages should be legal, versus 29 percent who said they should be banned and 17 percent who were unsure".

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

If Mississippi Democrats were polled, I believe that number approving of interracial marriage would be higher.

[yardwork]

8. Agreed. It's a good thing that the Supreme Court determined that those laws were unconstitutional.

Civil rights can't be left up to popular vote.

[absyntheminded]

9. The Loving Story...

Was a very moving documentary I saw about two weeks ago on HBO concerning the legal battles and eventual Supreme Court decision that found interracial marriage laws were unconstitutional, resulting in them being over-turned in 16 states. Richard Loving (white) was the stoic, strong silent southern boy type, and his beautiful wife, Mildred, was Indian/African American. What I found so moving was how much they were in love and how happy their kids were despite the poverty they lived in and the hatred they endured. Mildred Loving was the spoke-person and "pillar" for the family. She was beautiful, intelligent, articulate and graceful in every frame of film she was captured in...just a great, moving story.

BTW - In the film they state that Alabama didn't overturn their interracial marriage laws until 2000!!

The synopsis....

http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/the-loving-story/index.html#/documentaries/the-loving-story/synopsis.html

[Boojatta]

10. Doesn't that create an opportunity?

But the fact that 50% of them openly believe that interracial marriage should be banned by law, that's way more disturbing.

Whenever a Republican politician is in Mississippi, it's possible to raise the question: "Do you agree with the definition of marriage as a union of one man and one woman of the same race?"

A Republican politician who disagrees will lose popularity in Mississippi, and a Republican politician who agrees will lose popularity nationally.

[northoftheborder]

11. An African American news person on MSNBC said yesterday with such firm conviction that it....

...made me sit up and take notice: she grew up in Alabama and said that it was a place still just as ignorant and bigoted. I believe it. Awful that such backward areas are part of the US. Maybe they should secede - good riddance.

[book_worm]

12. these are old, overwhelmingly white right wingers voting in a GOP primary

and you're suprised?

[BumRushDaShow]

13. The irony being that 37% of the MS population is black

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/28000.html

[ThoughtCriminal]

14. I guess we can look at it as a "Half Full" situation

And be surprised that half the Mississippi republicans DO think inter-racial marriages should be legal.

[Aerows]

19. I think you should ask yourself

Do I really want to keep posting here?

Because posting obvious white supremacists clap trap is prohibited here (like it is everywhere else sane people have discussions). See you later, dude. You aren't going to last here very long, and take your hate crap with you.

[Aerows]

17. Two things

1. It was a poll on MS GOP voters, not your average person living in MS (like me).

2. All of the hullabaloo over gay marriage won't stop at gay marriage if the GOP gets their way. If they can invalidate one marriage, they can invalidate another, and you can bet they won't stop just at invalidating gay marriages. They will invalidate other marriages that they "don't approve of".

[Taverner]

18. Agree 100%. IF they had their way, I couldn't have married my wife of 15 years