My limited experience with racist people is that unless they're just completely hateful, there are many who are (perhaps unsaid) mainly uncomfortable with people different from them, due to a lack of first-hand exposure. But sometimes they can get comfortable enough with an individual to accept him even if they don't change their mind the race in general.
I'm looking for thoughts and input from people who know people who are racist or even just "uncomfortable". Doesn't this debate, putting Obama on the same stage, and obviously coming out ahead or ate least even with the old white guy, help? And he wasn't "scary"...
I think back to my grandmother. She was racist, but she liked Bill Cosby. Exposure made her more comfortable since he was on TV. Doesn't the mere fact that Obama has now been seen in the same forum make some % of at least moderately-uncomfortable racists more comfortable? Can it swing more votes than we realize because it's unspoken and unreported?
I'm white but gay. And I know that it changes a lot of people's minds who are homophobic when they know a gay person. But usually the first stage is they say "well yes but you're not like those others". It takes a lot more exposure to get acceptance (around 5 years for my parents, for example). Could that be the case here? Could the visual of the first debate be more impactful than we realize?
I hope so! If it only moved a couple points in swing states, that'd be huge.
Thoughts?