A recent Associated Press poll found that many white Democrats have negative views of blacks, which could end up costing Sen. Barack Obama the presidency. According to the poll, many Democrats referred to blacks as lazy, violent and irresponsible.

Although many Republicans referred to blacks in a negative way as well, the AP suggests that the Democrats, who are significantly more likely to vote for Obama in the first place, could make the difference in the election by not voting for Obama because of his race, saying, “Absent racial prejudice, Obama would receive as much as 6 percentage points more support…”

Asking if someone considers blacks to be lazy, violent or irresponsible certainly leaves a lot of room for interpretation — depending on how one defines lazy, violent and irresponsible. This does not, however, mean that people’s biases are completely unfounded.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the black unemployment rate in 2007 was 9.1 percent, while the overall unemployment rate was only 4.2 percent. Blacks also receive more welfare money at a much higher rate than the country as a whole. While these numbers only refer to a minority of blacks and could be due to a number of different causes, it may explain why blacks are sometimes perceived as lazy.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, whites committed homicides at a rate of 3.5 per 100,000 people in 2005, whereas blacks committed homicides at a rate of 26.5 per 100,000 people. At current incarceration rates, 32 percent of black males will enter a state or federal prison during their lifetime. With blacks committing over seven times as many homicides per person as whites, it is no wonder that some whites consider blacks to be violent.

According to economist Walter E. Williams, the rate of black out-of-wedlock births in 2005 was an astounding 68 percent — almost twice the national average. Although responsibility could be defined as many things, having illegitimate children is definitely not one of them. So again, it’s not that difficult to see why many people might consider blacks to be irresponsible.

The color of one’s skin obviously doesn’t cause people to become lazy, violent or irresponsible, nor do people think it does. But just because skin color isn’t a direct cause of things like unemployment, homicide and illegitimacy doesn’t mean people won’t notice the correlation.

That being said, it is still highly unlikely that these views will result in Obama failing to be elected. This is because the people who hold these views are not, for the most part, racists. They don’t hate blacks, and they will continue to judge individuals on an individual basis. They just see the statistics and believe, rightly so in many cases, that blacks as a whole exhibit many of these characteristics at a higher than average rate. It doesn’t mean that they automatically assume every black person they see is lazy, violent and irresponsible. Just that it is somewhat more likely.

And in the case of Obama, it is extremely unlikely that he is perceived that way. Obama is one of only 100 senators in the country, is now running for president of the United States and spends a great deal of his time campaigning all across the nation trying to bring about change. That is hardly how most people would define lazy or irresponsible.

Obama also strongly opposes the war in Iraq, his idea of convincing Iran and North Korea to comply with U.S. demands is the threat of economic sanctions, and he wants to create a world without nuclear weapons. He may actually be one of the most nonviolent people ever to run for president.

There are plenty of good reasons not to vote for Obama, but race is not one of them, and the American people know this. If Obama loses this election it will be because of his politics, not because of his race.

— Blake Hasenmiller is a senior in industrial engineering and economics from DeWitt