It's hard to judge a poll like this. I don't feel like his questions were attempting to lead the respondent in a particular direction, they were meant to ask if the respondent already leaned that way. If the poll showed a significant percentage of respondents agreed with those statements, then I think it would be appropriate to judge the respondents, and perhaps their culture and institutions that may be influenced by that.
The problem with a poll is it is very difficult to ask an open-ended question. They can't ask "What do you feel about black voters?" and then leave a blank box for people to fill in. First off, no one would do it (it's hard enough to get people to fill in free text fields on Internet polls when people are not in a hurry to get to work). Second, it's very hard to properly measure the results, since the answers can be given in too many different ways. So the pollster has to make close-ended questions that can be easily and quickly answered with a check in the right box, but then there comes another problem. In a close-ended question, the respondent only has the offered answers to choose from. If the question is vague in any way or can be interpreted different ways, then the results are not trustworthy. To solve for that, pollsters often rely on questions that are extreme and can't be misinterpreted. In the case of this exit poll, that seems to be what the pollster was doing. It's really hard to misinterpret the question, especially since those questions have been subtly "asked" by conservatives for years now in the form of anonymous callers into right-wing radio programs and "expert" pundits on Fox News.
I understand the reaction to reading these blunt statements. In a perfect world, everyone would check the "disagree" box and this question would be a waste of space. But this isn't a perfect world, and the question is all too pertinent. For the response quotes at the end of the article, I would have said:
“Some of the questions are offensive in nature and the questions aren’t even about me, because I am White. But Black people voted in this election as well, and were asked these same questions,” one woman wrote of her experience. “A person could literally have just passed four confederate flags on the way to vote only to be asked if “Blacks” are too demanding for their push for equal rights?!?”
I think if being white meant you had no stance on those questions, our country would be a much better place. But the problem is white people
do hold stances on the rights of other races, either directly or indirectly. As for the confederate flags, if that tells you the answer is "disagree", then that's the box I would check. Unfortunately, those who probably put up those flags might have a different answer, and that is the problem.
“I know there are other people who took the poll and were offended and as confused as I was. Concerned citizens must stand up to people in our community who don’t seem to realize the impact these racist questions will have, especially on people of color,” she added. “We were told this was an exit poll, not a survey about race, and that in itself is deceptive.”
Compare the impact of these questions with the impact of no one talking about this at all. I think these questions are not the problem, and the fact that they offended this person shows that this is not a "non-issue". Also, the questions aren't really a survey about race; they are actual political positions more bluntly stated. And some of the politicians who took those positions won elections that night.
Consider question "L" on the image that is not circled, but shows a different perspective:
Generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class. Agree Disagree
Why is it any less offensive that this question has a "Disagree" box than that the former questions had an "Agree" box? While people are getting offended that they are merely asked to respond to these questions, there are those who deal with discrimination every day, and
that is where they
should be getting offended. I think for a lot of people the offensiveness was in having to discuss a problem they don't have and that they'd feel more comfortable just ignoring.
