Question: 1

 

According to Nate Silver, how do we know that race was a factor in the election of Barak Obama in 2008? 

In areas in the middle region of the country, places like Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, registered the lowest Barak Obama support. These places are having mono-racial neighborhoods therefore their voting is racially biased and that why he gathered low votes. During the exit polls conducted most people confirmed that race was one of the major factor that influenced their presidential voting. Some people dint vote for Obama simple because he was African American. States had cities in them or had multiple races, showed significant support for Obama as a presidential candidate. If the race of Barak Obama was not an issue to many people, then he would have won the election with a much higher support even in the “redder states” but this is not the case. Though as compared to the nineties people are more enlightened to matters concerning race, race is still shaping the political arena as was seen in the election of Barak Obama.

Question: 2

 

According to the video, why does the type of neighborhood you live in matter in the way you vote? 

Neighborhoods that are in States that are more rural often exhibit racially based voting. While neighborhoods in states like New York or California are more enlightened with regards to issues of racial based voting. According to a research highlighted in the video most rural areas do not have people of other race as their neighbors as compared to those people in big cities where about 80% confirmed that they had neighbors of other race. People that live in mono-racial neighborhoods do not have interactions with other people of other races and are therefore closed minded when it comes to their voting patterns. But people that leave in cities where there is interaction with people of the same race and of different race, when it comes to voting, they are a bit open minded about voting for people of other races.

Work cited

Nate Silver, (2009). Does racism affect how you vote? Retrieved from:

www.ted.com/talks/nate_silver_on_race_and_politics?language=en