Here’s the scene of the crime. Rasmussen is a political polling company. In the lull after the 2022 midterms and before the 2024 general election, they had some time to kill. And could use a few clicks.
They found some. Last week they released the results of a poll posing the question:
Do you agree or disagree with this statement: “It’s OK to be white.”
Rasmussen reported that 72% of those polled – of all skin colors – agreed with that statement.
Among Blacks, too, most agreed that it’s OK to be white but the percentage was lower. Some 42% strongly agreed and another 11% somewhat agreed. About 18% said they strongly disagreed and 8% said they somewhat disagreed. About 21% said they were not sure.
If you take out the “not sure” category, 53% of Blacks agreed strongly or somewhat that “it’s OK to be white” while 26% disagreed strongly or somewhat. More than twice as many agreed as disagreed.
Enter the murderer. The creator of the Dilbert comic strip, Scott Adams, picked up on the poll, as Rasmussen undoubtedly intended people to, ran off a cliff with it, and splattered spectacularly. In a Twitter storm, he lumped the 21% of not sure Blacks with the 18% of Blacks who disagreed strongly and the 8% who disagreed somewhat. Then in a bit of sophistry, he concluded that “add them together, that’s 47% of Black respondents [who] were not willing to say it’s OK to be white.”
the Aspen beat 