Must-Read: I oscillate between thinking that this is a huge problem for America, and thinking that this is a good sign for America--that political prejudice is a product of the fact that racial prejudice is no longer assumed and presumed. But I do wonder if Sean Westwood and Shanto Iyengar understand the world in which they live, which does require that they spend at least some time watching Fox News:
: We’ve Grown Apart: "Shanto Iyengar... and... Sean Westwood...
...people are more apt to discriminate against college scholarship applicants based on party than on race.... Moms and dads [increasingly] see members of the opposite party as morally unfit to join their families by marriage.... I don’t think differences about tax policy explain why the country has grown apart to such an alarming degree. It’s probably true that the media has played a big role in making this happen, but this can be exaggerated. Also, if these folks think the following is true, they need to watch more Fox News:
‘Political identity is fair game for hatred,’ [Iyenger] says. ‘Racial identity is not. Gender identity is not. You cannot express negative sentiments about social groups in this day and age. But political identities are not protected by these constraints. A Republican is someone who chooses to be Republican, so I can say whatever I want about them.’ You can see an example when you look at the media, Westwood observes. There are no major cable channels devoted to making people of other races look bad. But there are cable channels that seem devoted to making members of the other party look bad...
There are some ways in which MSNBC and Fox News are mirror images of each other... devoted to making the other party look bad. But Fox News is also committed to making blacks look bad. And they’re not much better when it comes to Latinos, Muslims, and folks who want a wedding cake for their gay wedding.
