Wimbledon and Bias

Snood wrote:

"In all friendship" Thomas, we're not friends, and never have been. But you're certainly entitled to your opinion of me and the "role" I'm "clinging" to (even in spite of a black president for two years, imagine!!). We're even. The opinion I've gotten from reading your posts over time is also unflattering.

I'm glad you've got this off your chest.

Snood wrote:

...and just for the record...
At the time I was thoroughly convinced that Obama didn't have a chance, and that his race was going to be a disability at the polls, every black person I knew (how many do you know?) were very dubious about his chances. they came around after Iowa - as did I.

That's your problem right there. We all form our opinions partly from what other people say. But you apparently formed yours only from what other black people said---rejecting what white people had to say about Obama's chances. And to answer your question: In 2006, when Sozobe started her thread, I wasn't acquainted with any blacks in real life. That's because I was living in Germany, and the percentage of Blacks in the German population is negligible. I did correspond with a couple of blacks on the internet---you and three others. Although I did listen to them, I regarded their opinions as one perspective on many. I didn't---and still don't---think blacks have a monopoly on competently analyzing race relations in the US.

Yeah - I watched until 4:00 in the morning - not daring to believe it could really be happening. There were tears of shocked and happy disbelief in our house that night.

There was never a doubt in my mind that he could win - and I bet heavily that he WOULD win. Actually, from January 08 onward, it was pretty clear that he was gonna win.

Cycloptichorn

Cycloptichorn wrote:

There was never a doubt in my mind that he could win - and I bet heavily that he WOULD win. Actually, from January 08 onward, it was pretty clear that he was gonna win.

Cycloptichorn

I think I believe you, cyclops, just based on reading you over time...

but I think my point is that you were in the minority with your certainty - certainly until Iowa.

The way I see yours is similar to the problem many southern whites have in my opinion - a most unfortunate combination of proud ignorance and deep arrogance.

snood wrote:

The way I see yours is similar to the problem many southern whites have in my opinion - a most unfortunate combination of proud ignorance and deep arrogance.

That's alright---I take pride in my arrogance. As for ignorance: In our 2006 exchange, I got Obama's prospects right and you got them wrong. How is that ignorance on my part?

Your equating your correct prediction with lack of ignorance only highlights your ignorance.

There was never a doubt in my mind that he could win - and I bet heavily that he WOULD win. Actually, from January 08 onward, it was pretty clear that he was gonna win.

snood wrote:

Your equating your correct prediction with lack of ignorance only highlights your ignorance.

Just out of curiosity---can you name three posters on A2K who disagree with you on the issue of race an whom you don't consider ignorant?

Quote:

There was never a doubt in my mind that he could win - and I bet heavily that he WOULD win. Actually, from January 08 onward, it was pretty clear that he was gonna win.

Yep - my son felt the same way. I was fretting and worrying and he was confident Obama would win.
I can only attribute it to the our differing generations. Civil rights was in the distant past as far as he was concerned- and all that went along with it part of a bygone era-whereas for me and my friends and whites of our generation - although change had come- we just weren't that able to totally have faith in something that we had believed within our lifetime was too good to be true.

So yeah age of the voter probably played a role in being able to envision the outcome with any sort of confidence.

Thomas wrote:

snood wrote:

Your equating your correct prediction with lack of ignorance only highlights your ignorance.

Just out of curiosity---can you name three posters on A2K who disagree with you on the issue of race an whom you don't consider ignorant?

That'd probably be about as difficult for me as it would for you to recall the last three face to face conversations you had with a black person. What's your point?

It's wasn't the fact of his race that gave me and my friends pause at all. We had just come up during a time when we had SEEN with our own eyes the discrimination directed against black people and it was difficult to believe that that had really dissipated enough in the minds of enough people that there would be enough unbiased support to elect this man.

Are you kidding me? We were over the moon that it proved to be true - but you know - part of me is still happily surprised.
What can I tell you - we saw what we saw. Maybe people your age and younger have been lucky enough not to have seen the same stuff.
I can only weep with joy if that is true-just like I wept with joy the night our country elected Barack Obama.

Interesting when you put it like that, which is only logical. At the time I didn't realize that when it got down to it - that's what my thinking amounted to-I didn't have faith in other individuals.

When I think now of how I'd describe what I was thinking, it was more a perception of an overriding American identity or cultural entity that I couldn't believe could be overridden at that point.

It just seemed too much to hope for- but I was happy to be proven wrong.