Do Politicians Discriminate ?

Do politicians discriminate? That's an interesting question. I'm sure if you ask them they will all (100%) deny it. After all, it's not generally acceptable to be obvious about discrimination in this country (even racists tend to deny it, saying they are supporting their own race and not discriminating against another race). But we all know that racial discrimination does exist, so how do we find out if politicians engage in it (outside of the few who reveal their bias in their speeches)?

A couple of people at Yale University decided to try and find out -- Daniel M. Butler (Asst. Professor of Political Science) and David E. Broockman (student in Political Science). They decided to send politicians an e-mail asking for help in registering to vote. The politicians would receive an e-mail signed by either Jake Mueller or DeShawn Jackson. These names were chosen because both the first and last names are most often associated with a specific race in the minds of most people.

Now if there is truly no discrimination, then there should be no difference in the responses to the different e-mails. In a democracy shouldn't all letters receive the same (or an equal) response). The paper these men wrote about the responses they received is fascinating reading and I urge you all to go read it. But to make a long story short, there is definite discrimination among the politicians. Politicians of both parties tended to respond to people of their own race (or perceived political views) better than someone different. here's how the legislators responded:

WHITE DEMOCRATS
DeShawn Jackson got 53.4% response
Jake Mueller got 61.2% response

MINORITY DEMOCRATS
Deshawn Jackson got 45.9% response
Jake Mueller got 29.4% response

WHITE REPUBLICANS
Deshawn Jackson got 59.3% response
Jake mueller got 66.9% response

MINORITY REPUBLICANS
Deshawn Jackson got 44.4% response
Jake Mueller got 75.0% response

The sad part is that all groups showed a difference in response between the two. There shouldn't have been. Personally, I think both names should have received a 100% response from all four groups (since they are supposed to be representing all the people and not just the people of their own race).

But perhaps the most interesting response is the one from minority Republican legislators. They responded over 30% more to the e-mail from the person with a white-sounding name. Do they figure that is the person most likely to share their political views? Or is it the person most likely to vote for their party?

They also sent out some of the e-mails asking for help in registering so they could vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary. It's no surprise that the politicians of both parties responded more to the person who wanted to vote in their own party's primary. That is to be expected (since most politicians value re-election above all else).

But I can't help but be troubled by the differences in responses keyed only by the racially-charged names. It doesn't mean that every single politician is discriminating, but it does mean that far too many of them are -- in both parties. That needs to change.