Rachel Staples

Period 6

Project One Race in Politics

Race has seemed to be a very heated debate in our country
throughout history. America has obtained quite a track record for being
oppressive towards other races, particularly African-Americans. For that
reason, my group and I chose to survey people about their opinions
regarding candidates of different races. We hoped that it would prove that
Americans have opened their minds to people of other ethnicities, and that
we could overcome our historical reputation of racism. Our hopes were
confirmed throughout the course of this assignment, and we learned that
America has begun to open their minds to the views of varying races in
politics.
For this assignment, half of us distributed surveys regarding an African
American candidate and half of us distributed the surveys regarding a white
candidate. Before we actually distributed the surveys and got our results, we
discussed who we should distribute them so as not to get skewed results.
This is what we came up with: each person would take their assigned survey,
and distribute it to as many different people as possible. We each tried to get
as many republicans as democrats, and as many Caucasians to answer the
survey as we did African Americans. We also tried to get a wide range of
ages included in the mix, so that meant each of us would have to take the
survey to multiple places. And because many Utahans tend to be white and
republican, we tried to survey people that were outside of that general
populous stereotype. This also led us to our groups question: Where are your

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Period 6

parents from? We figured that this question would provide us with more
information as to why the individual being surveyed would have certain
answers. It also provided us with the opportunity for more variance in who
we surveyed, thus more accurate results. With these goals in mind, we each
took 4 or 5 surveys from our assigned candidate and began to survey people
in the community.
I distributed my surveys at home, at work, and in my neighborhood.
That gave me the opportunity to reach a wide variety of people within a
smaller geographical are. After reading the candidates profiles myself, I tried
to form a hypothesis based on what my opinion would be, but it was hard. I
realized that many people want elected officials that are reflections of
themselves, so African Americans typically want an African American to
represent them in office, and Caucasians typically want a Caucasian. It
seems like that has been a pattern in politics for quite some time. With that
in mind, I came to the assumption that because many of the people in the
area (many people in Utah, really) are Caucasian that they would be more
biased toward a white candidate. I predicted that in general, the men and
women in the area would be very considerate about both candidates but
would tend to lean more towards the white candidate. This proved to be
generally untrue. Many of the people we surveyed were very considerate and
open-minded to voting for an African American leader, which I assumed
would happen; however, it seemed that race really did not affect the final

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Period 6

decision in most cases. The surveys proved that political views really were
the most impactful part of the decision for many Utahans.
In order to maintain the most accurate and honest answers possible in
the surveys I distributed, I acted as if my candidate was a real person
running in an upcoming election. This seemed to get people more interested
in answering the questions honestly. The first man I surveyed seemed to
know it was a hypothetical scenario because of the way I presented it: I am
taking a Political Science class at SLCC, and I was hoping that you could take
this survey for me. Whereas the men and women I surveyed afterward were
more invested and thoughtful in their responses because I approached them
saying, Would you be willing to take this survey regarding a potential
candidate? I believe the way I approached those I surveyed did impact how
seriously they considered the candidates political opinions.
Another way my group and I tried to maintain accuracy was by
distributing the surveys to multiple types of people, as mentioned above. I
took my surveys to work, where a majority of the people are republican and
very passionate about politics. The two surveys I handed out there seemed
to be based solely on political opinions; however one of the men said, I
dont want to come across as racist, but I also dont agree with this mans
political views. His survey was very vague. I then had my mother fill out a
survey, and she also seemed hesitant to mark anything negative about the
candidate although she did disagree with a few of his viewpoints. This
process continued on for all 5 of my surveys. Each person had parents from

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Period 6

Utah, but all had varying political opinions. The biggest trend I noticed in my
particular surveys was vagueness. Nobody seemed to want to be too
strongly opinionated neither for nor against the African-American candidate,
and only 3 of the people I surveyed were willing to put their religious
affiliation. I had a hard time understanding why, but I learned afterward that
they didnt want to come across as rude if they didnt agree with the
candidate and they didnt want to misrepresent their religion by associating
it with their political opinions. I found that very interesting.
The final way that my group and I decided to keep accuracy in our
survey results was by age variance. We had surveyed answered by multiple
people in each age group, and we found some very interesting results. The
older the candidate was, the more passionate they seemed to be about the
political opinions of the candidate they read about. We had only a few
surveys from people over 60 years old, but they were very passionate
answers. One man seemed to be willing to campaign for the AfricanAmerican candidate! Which proved to us that even the oldest respondents
were more concerned with political opinions than race.
I did also notice a correlation between religious affiliation and
willingness to answer honestly. Many of the men and women surveyed were
members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and were either
not willing to answer bluntly or were not willing to write their religion on the
survey sheet. In contrast, many of the men and women who were not
religious were willing to answer very honestly whether for or against the

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Period 6

candidate. After asking a few of the respondents and discussing the results
as a group we realized that those who were associated with a particular
religious group were not willing to answer bluntly because they did not want
their personal opinions to reflect the opinions of their church. However, the
men and women who answered most honestly were not associated with a
particular religious group or church and thus felt they could answer honestly
without feeling that they were falsely representing a group. I found that very
interesting.
While my group tried to find a correlation between where a person was
from and their responses regarding race, we didnt really see one. While
many of the respondents from places outside of Utah seemed to be very
open-minded, they were not strongly for or against either candidate. We
discussed how these men and women were more honestly open-minded
about the candidates, but overall it seemed that their responses were quite
similar to everyone elses.
Overall, the surveys that we distributed and analyzed showed no
strong bias against the African-American candidate. While there were a few
individuals who appeared to be almost worried about having a black man
representing them in office, it seemed that a larger majority of the people
surveyed were very open-minded to having a representative of a different
ethnicity in office. It seemed that more people were willing to consider him
than the white candidate simply out of desire to be politically correct and
come across considerate of people of other races. I found it very interesting

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Period 6

that even the oldest man surveyed was very happy and open-minded about
the black candidate. I think it shows how our country has begun to open its
eyes to the abilities that all people have, regardless of their skin color.
Throughout the course of this surveying process, I believe the most
interesting thing that we discovered as a group was the way many people
were not willing to provide very passionate answers to the survey questions.
It seemed that hardly anyone was marking strongly agree or strongly
disagree. I believe this has a lot to do with the desire of people to be
politically correct, and to come across as tolerant of other people. It was a
little bit disappointing, though, to have such vague answers. It made it
difficult to come to a clear conclusion at times. I would recommend that
future groups conducting this survey take the religious affiliation line off of
the survey, because it seemed to hinder the truth of the responses. I would
also recommend telling those being surveyed that you would like to survey
them regarding a potential candidate, and leaving out that the survey is
being conducted for a class. That seems to create the most accurate and
authentic responses to the questions on the survey.
In conclusion, I believe the surveys proved that we as a nation have
taken beginning steps toward getting rid of racism throughout the country,
and that we are becoming more tolerant of other ethnicities with every
generation.