Huh. Who knew. Tea Partiers are racist.

  Soooo it turns out that "academics" have decided that Tea Partiers are racist, didn't affect the 2010 election, and have little "racial empathy" for those who don't work hard because Tea Partiers trust capitalism too much.
  We might remind ourselves that "academics" do little but sit in an office occasionally and write papers, teaching minimally and "studying" the world, according to the statistics and situations they themselves create.
  To suggest that they have great insight into the Tea Party is to suggest they actually know what's going on outside the Ivory Tower.
  So with that in mind, let's look at what their papers' topics were at a recent conference, according to the Washington Times:

But like Mr. Jacobson, Mr. Abramowitz also said they were more likely to harbor racial resentment, which he judged based on their answers to questions such as whether blacks could succeed as well as whites if they “would only try harder,” and whether they agreed with the statement that Irish, Italians and Jews overcame prejudice and “blacks should do the same without any special favors.”
Mr. Abramowitz said tea party supporters were substantially more likely than other voters to question how much effort black Americans are making to advance themselves versus being held back by social factors.

  This is a great line about Tea Partiers trusting capitalism more than social programs:

“This makes it less surprising that nearly all Tea Partiers believe that hard work, rather than luck, drives success. This might also explain their lower levels of racial empathy, as they are less aware for how opportunity may be different for particular groups of people,” she wrote in a working draft paper. 

  Apparently this means that the academic who wrote this that "racial empathy" means that you expect less of someone whose skin color isn't white. Let's be honest. If this "academic" can extrapolate that "racial empathy" is determined by a belief capitalism then a Tea Partier can extrapolate that "racial empathy" means you're supposed to feel sorry for people whose skin isn't white, give them free stuff, expect less and never push them as hard as the average person who works for what they get.
  It is true that opportunities are different for different groups of people but there are lots of Indian, white and Asian kids who don't have much in the way of money or opportunity. It's about time we give advantages to kids based on their circumstances rather than the color of their skin. 
  Basically looking at any group of people, even Tea Partiers, like they're bugs under glass is wrong. Looking at any group of people with a cold eye from the outside will not necessarily yield accurate results.
  And, of course, it all depends on the questions you choose to ask and the way you interpret the answers.
  You'd think those really, really smart academics could figure that out.