Slow Boring

Share this post

Racial polarization is going down, not up

www.slowboring.com

Racial polarization is going down, not up

It’s a big deal, but it always has been

Matthew Yglesias
Sep 19, 2023
∙ Paid
162
Share this post

Racial polarization is going down, not up

www.slowboring.com
391
Share

I try not to pick too much on headlines because there is some inevitable loss of nuance in these things, and trying to get people to click on the articles is a part of life. But I was really struck by the headline of a recent Dan Balz article in The Washington Post: “What divides political parties? More than ever, it’s race and ethnicity.”

I was struck by two things about it. One is that the headline is contrary to my understanding of recent political trends, so I was surprised that a new American Political Science Association report would say that racial polarization is at an all-time high. The other is how many people responded to the headline with complaints about “both sides” framing or, as in this David Roberts thread, about the need to take an increasingly uncompromising stance in the face of these divisions.

It turns out that if you actually read the article, the text does not back up the claim that the parties are more divided than ever by race and ethnicity. Instead, Balz, ci…

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to

Slow Boring
to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2023 Matthew Yglesias
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing