Alan Abramowitz Might Think You're a Symbolic Racist

...and you probably are. Dig this.

Racial attitudes have changed dramatically in the United States over the past several decades, of course, and overtly racist beliefs are much less prevalent among white Americans of all classes today. But a more subtle form of prejudice, which social scientists sometimes call symbolic racism, is still out there -- especially among working-class whites.

Symbolic racism means believing that African American poverty and other problems are largely the result of lack of ambition and effort, rather than white racism and discrimination.

Emphasis mine. Condensed version: Unless you think that blacks are hopelessly victimized, you're a racist of one kind or another. We will continue to redefine the term until you fit it. So those of you who think that behavior creates outcomes, you're racist.

I wonder how many African and Carribean immigrants are symbolic racists.

In a side-by-side comparison of 2000 census data by sociologist John R. Logan at the Mumford Center, State University of New York at Albany, black immigrants from Africa average the highest educational attainment of any population group in the country, including whites and Asians.

For example, 43.8 percent of African immigrants had achieved a college degree, compared to 42.5 of Asian Americans, 28.9 percent for immigrants from Europe, Russia and Canada, and 23.1 percent of the U.S. population as a whole.

I would bet that a whole bunch of them are. If you think that family structure matters more than race, you're a symbolic racist, too.

It turns out that Alan Abramowitz is a professor of political science at Emory University. My bet is that at the annual Emory University talent show, the professors do a song and dance number akin to the "Everyone has AIDS" song from Team America: World Police, substituting "Everyone's a racist" for "Everyone has AIDS."