Election Outcomes

Several frightening outcomes have surfaced following last week's presidential election.  Of course, many very positive takeaways have emerged as well, with Professor Steve Ramirez writing about two of them in this Corporate Justice space.  Yet, the frightening outcomes appear to show that our nation remains deeply divided along racial and class lines.

Following the election, statisticians and social media analysts got busy and turned up the following two charts, which should give Americans everywhere pause. First, the chart below shows that we are most definitely not a post-racial place, as evidenced by the number and intensity of racist tweets that were sent on election night following President Obama's re-election.

The next chart shows how the state's with the most educated populations voted, versus how the state's with the least educated populations voted for president.  How "educated" a state is was determined by percentages of citizens 25 years of age and older with a college degree or more.

These two charts seem to evidence that our nation remains deeply divided, both on issues of race and of class.  Racist tweets in the deep south were prevalent, most obviously in Mississippi and Alabama following President Obama's re-election success.  Still, racist tweets were evident throughout the nation.  Further, if "education" level is to be measured by college degree, then those states with the most college graduates voted overwhelmingly for President Obama, where those states with the fewest college graduates were nearly as overwhelmingly in support of Mitt Romney.  We must continue to try to bridge divides in the United States by honestly confronting issues of festering racism and poverty.