Reverse Bradley Effect in Play?
In politics, the term “Bradley Effect” has been thrown around quite a bit lately. The theory is that white people will claim to be in favor of voting for Obama, the black candidate, but will instead vote against Obama due to racial issues.
While I am sure there is a small percentage of whites that will say they support Obama yet vote against him due to race, I am also wondering about an idea that has had little to no talk. What about a reverse Bradley Effect?
Obama is the first African American candidate for US President that has ever had a real chance. Since his nomination the daily polls have been showing him up, meaning there is a good chance that Obama may come out the winner. However, I wonder if African American voters could create a reverse effect. Let me explain…
Voting based on skin color, regardless if it is “for” or “against” will happen on both sides of the racial fence. There will be whites voting against Obama and blacks voting for Obama simply because of his skin color.
So my question is this… what if there is a large group of black voters that don’t agree with Obama’s views at all, but are afraid of potential negative affects from the black community if they said they were not going to vote for him? Could this be possible? Could a black voter claim to be for Obama to prevent being called a “sell out” or something worse, yet vote for McCain in the polling booth when no one is looking? This would cause a similar effect showing the same inflated numbers, but the racial end would be black…
This is something I doubt we will ever know. If indeed Obama looses, I believe the Bradley Effect will be a great source of coversation for years to come. As I am sure the idea of white voters lying and changing thier vote will be debated, I would just love to hear someone actually discuss a “reverse” affect of blacks claiming one things and doing another as a possiblity as well.