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[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]
The so-called birthers can’t accept that President Obama is really a natural-born American citizen. Part of what’s behind this seemingly irrational belief may lie in what’s called implicit social cognition—the deep-rooted assumptions we all carry around, and may act on without realizing it.
Harvard’s Mahzarin Banaji studies such implicit cognition. Last fall she talked to journalists at the annual conference of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing about research into bias against Asian-Americans. “So we thought, what if we picked Asians who are very well known to be American. What about Connie Chung? Are they going to be seen as less American than, let’s say, Hugh Grant? And so we thought this was a bizarre study to do but we did it anyway.”
Amazingly, white Americans did see a white European like Hugh Grant as being somehow more American than the Asian-American Connie Chung. And similar research in 2008 found that whites thought of ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair as somehow more American than Obama. So the mental framework to believe that Obama is foreign probably was, to use a health care term, a preexisting condition.
—Steve Mirsky
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98 Comments
Add CommentUmmm, I think it's called being a red neck.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPeople, Obama is our president now.
We need to stand behind him and support him. At the end of his term if you want to elect someone else, we are all free to do that. Then we all should stand behind that person.
I did it when commander koo-koo was in charge. So SUCK IT UP!
Enough of the propaganda! First, I am not a "birther". I wish this issue would be proved one way or the other and go away. However, calling people who want proof that Obama was born in this country - given that there are claims that he was born elsewhere - irrational, is pure politics and not unlike racial baiting at it's worst! Come on "SciAm", real Americans can see through your lame attempt to twist this issue into one of "whites against non-whites".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisObama is not a black man. He is at the least 50% white and I am offended he negates his white anscetry by letting others call him black. He is of mixed race with White,Black and Semitic components.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe rest of the article is pure B.S. The non birthers are on the way to being a political minority. One must prove his right to run for president..it is not a given.
By the way the Chinese probably think of Cunnie Chung as more Chinese than they do Hugh Grant. Just what are you trying to say about the US that cannot be said almost everywhere in the world. Putting something in the language of a particular area of study does not give it credibility. That may fly in USA Today but I am amazed you think the readership of Scientic America will fall for such foolishness.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Chinese alsoprobably think Connie Chung is more Chinese than an American Expatriate living in China . Your article says nothing already not easily understood by a fifth grader. Putting a topic in the language of the social sciences does not make it good science. This might pass for science on USA Today but I suspect readers of Scientific American will see right through it. Of course the article was probably written for its quotability in USA Today.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisComment to Joeldooris.....you used the term red neck. That is just as rascist as if someone used the term "big lips"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe only "genuine "americans are the "red indians", (don't know the PC word for it), I think. All others are latecomers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt would be interesting to see similar research from other countries, say South Africa, Zimbabwe or Greenland. I am pretty sure, that the vast majority of the population there would feel that blacks, or esquimo/inuit, are the "real thing"!
George,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisObama has shown his birth certificate. The state of Hawai'i and the officials who are in charge of vital records have stated that his original birth certificate is in their records. The "birthers" say they need to see his long form birth certificate. If they saw the long form it would just be something else.
But the point of article is that "foreigness" has nothing to with where they are actually from.
Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States FACT & PROVEN. Birthers are stupid, ignorant or crazy FACT & PROVEN.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm sad to be a witness to the death of critical thinking in America ... I agree that Shakespeare declared that truth is what you make it, but I don't agree that it is actually so.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTruth is not a relative thing in areas that matter the most ... and so it should be possible to establish, on constitutional and legal grounds, (on "hard facts") the basis for declaring someone legally an American citizen.
It should then be possible to decide whether Obama does or does not qualify.
It should NOT be a matter of opinion, and yet somehow it feels as if the Obama camp wants to establish it as so, rather than agree to an objective, item by item examination of the question.
It really is time for all of the whining spin-doctors and apologists to step back and allow this question to be settled, objectively, once and for all.
right, cuz the lynch mobs of the past (and present?) would have skipped over him! Don't know the last time that bigots stop to ask or analyze one's genealogy before they hurl racial slurs, pre judge you or discriminate. He's black, because he is visibly black, and treated as such his whole life.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLike other, I think this is a sad article, on the level of used car sales man quality (my appologies to the salesmen). I was expected some useful facts on the debate, not a propoganda BS piece like this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow about discussing why some people do not believe he was born here. How about some evidence he was? Sure it can not be that hard. Did his mother have a passport? Did it show her not out of the country? How about hospital records?
So these people are not deranged, they just have the "doesn't look like me" syndrome. That's bad news for the "truthers" - those that believe 9/11 was an inside job (by Bush and Cheney) and which includes a large (~38% according to polling) number of Democrats. What's their excuse?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt seems the majority of commentors believe as I do: STICK TO THE SCIENCE. This article would appear to be little more than an editorial spouting the opinion of the author hiding behind a Science Building hall pass.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInteresting to note that even if we think we're color-blind, we have biases we may not be aware of.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe "birthers" issues seems rather over-reported. Has anyone surveyed the general population to see what percentage believe President Obama was not born in the U.S.? My guess is it's a tiny percentage. The better question to ask is why this topic keeps coming up in the news and who keeps bringing it up. It's a convenient distraction from the legislative agenda being pushed in Washington DC.
I think there's another possible explanation. When the party or person in power doesn't represent a constituency's value system, some members of that group will go to great lengths to try to remove those people from power. We've seen it in every administration so far--nothing new here. Although it is sometimes surprising how much our biases blind us.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe "birthers" issues seems rather over-reported. Has anyone surveyed the general population to see what percentage believe President Obama was not born in the U.S.? My guess is it's a tiny percentage. The better question to ask is why this topic keeps coming up in the news and who keeps bringing it up. It's a convenient distraction from the legislative agenda being pushed in Washington DC.
The thing about Hugh Grant / Connie Chung might have something to do with their native languages and culture. Hugh Grant's native language and culture is more similar to the native language and culture in the US than Connie Chung's. Did that occur to these researchers? Or is it more interesting to paint groups as racist?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@georgeb1962 - you have stumbled onto the main tactic of those who wish to radicalise politics, i.e. make a false claim, keep repeating it so it cannot be ignored no matter how many times it is dis-proven. This is how the anti-agm crowd keep action from taking place on global warming.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThink about it - the claim has been made repeatedly that the world is flat. Does this mean it should have an impact on NASA's plans?
The facts concerning Obama's birth have been studied closely and he has been proven to be an American. Continued claims to the contrary in the absence of evidence are thus proven to be irrational. Yet the noise continues - why? To lower the level of discussion and serve as a smokescreen to distract from the actual issues (health care?).
You have contributed to the noise, and subtracted from time spent on more intelligent discussion. The birthers thank you.
When I saw in the headline "what's behind" I was hoping for a little more than this kind of conjecture to support scientific american. I would think a more responsible and newsworthy approach might be a money trail to the right wing or anything but a whitey is a dumb bunny slant.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEven if this kind of idiocy is interacially reflected it is hardly appropriate to cite it in response to some wanna be issue that would dry up on it's own if left that way. Science must approach issues directly, as science, and ignore anectdotal reflection at least officially. I have learned a great deal from this publication over the years, but I have often been amazed by their willingness to generalize beyond reason.
Probably the most rational approach I have heard so far. Prejudice is a deeply ingrained thing - it must have some anthropological imperative behind it similar to the fight-or-flight response.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt takes some real effort to recognize thee reactions and subject them to more rational thought rather than reacting to them .
Does SciAm.com ever criticize Democrats?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRyan Sager's post on a similar topic was much better.
http://trueslant.com/ryansager/2009/08/10/birthers-and-truthers-and-morons-oh-my/
I find it humorous that while this article never mentions political affiliations, republican or democrat, poster such as hanmeng still see this as a "anti-repupblican" article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think the study was interesting but given that this was a transcript of a 60 second podcast I wouldn't expect it to be too informational.
I happen to be a conservative who think the birthers are a laughable bunch who haven't got a leg to stand on. Their views certainly don't mesh with mine in this matter, just as the neo-cons views didn't either.
This study is right on, as I can attest to from personal experience. I am a the son of two immigrants from Scotland, born in Canada, and I came to the USA with my parents when I was four-years old (in 1963), and am now a naturalized US citizen. My family's roots in America are reletively very shallow in comparison to other Americans.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNevertheless, almost certainly because I look like a Northern European and have a British name, I have never been referred to as anything other than "American" thoughout my entire life whenever anyone has ever made reference to my nationality, no hyphen or anything, just "American".
This is in contrast to two childhood friends of mine, one whose ancestors came to California at the end of the 19th-century from Japan, and another whose ancestors settled in what is now the state of New Mexico in the 1700s when it was Spanish territory. As long as I have known them they have always been referred to as "Japanese-American" (Or just "Japanese") and "Mexican-American" (or just "Mexican")respectively, whenever their nationality was discussed, even though both of their families have much deeper roots in the USA than I have.
On a visit to Ellis Island a few years ago I found out that half of the people living in the USA can trace their ancestry back to ancestors who came through the immigration station at Ellis Island, almost all from Western Europe. Ellis Island was opened in 1892, so this means that about half of the people in the USA have an ancestor who came to the USA within the last 110 years.
In constrast, the vast majority of African-Americans have ancestors who were brought here in slavery before the end of the slave trade in the USA in the early 1800's. Ironically, the one ethnic group that has suffered the most in the USA in terms of 200-plus years of slavery and another 100-plus years of Jim Crow discrimination has a greater claim to being an "American" than most white-Americans, if your degree of "Americaness" is measured as a function of the amount of time your ancestors have resided in the USA.
Race definately plays a role in the determination of someone's degree of "American" nationality, and racism is certainly the ultimate reason these "Birthers" challenge President Obam's nationality.
If we can't learn to get past human intolerance of diversity (skin color, facial features, cultural preferences, etc.), and concentrate more on what we have in common than how little we may differ, then we should do this beautiful planet a favor and wipe ourselves out now, before we cause more damage. Perhaps the next intelligent species to evolve will learn from our stupidity and petty fears.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1) Lets see a political scientist analyse all of the "name calling" under the term "birther'. I was taught early on that name calling was an attempt to dehumanize and denigrate an opponent rather than address the issue.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot one non birther has yet told us why they support Obama's
closing ALL of his school records. Are they worse than the so called dumbey Bush? Or do they reveal some other birthing issue. One good thing may come from this in any case in that this use of the tern birther may hopefully start to kill all of the fluff about birthing centers rather than good old maternity floors. So many people out to change the language for political gain. Non Birthers keep finding new ways to ridicule rather than address the issue. The issue is not racism.
The podcast dosen't match the text.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGo, Steve Mirsky!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBah on you bozo bigots. This IS a report on certain conclusions determined by science, you twerps. It's known as "Social Psychology" and it's as legitimate as particle physics, since both use statistical an analysis to reach conclusions.
As a paleface redhead who is part Shawnee and proud of it, I'd like to know whether these shrunken heads who keep asking SciAm to stick to THEIR IMPOSSIBLY NARROW DEFINITION of "science" would exclude me as a "true American" just because I'm part-Shawness?
What's their percentage cutoff for determining "American purity"? Obama, after all, was born here, is half British, and looks like his Dunham grandfather with a tan. We are all immigrants, of course. It's just that my Native American ancestors arrived from Asia at least ten thousand years earlier than my Euro & British Isles ancestors. Maybe we need a Native American movement to exclude as "true Americans" everyone who's arrived in the New World since 1492--except, of coure, those like me who have some Native ancestry? The bozos are asking for it!
I comment using the name scientific earthling.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis name originates from my dissatisfaction with your name Scientific American. I believe you sell more copies of Sciam in India than in the US. Scientific people live all over the planet. I have read Sciam since my teen years, my dad & uncles also read the magazine.
I would love it if you changed your name to my comment name, no royalty required.
Born on earth species: Homo sapien, not a very apt name, Homo idiotus more appropriate.
Sciam has rapidly become the Newsweek of scientific periodicals. How does the continuous stream of political, Obama centric rubbish add to our scientific awareness?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe "they" don't believe he is a natural born citizen because he would rather spend millions of dollars fighting legal battles over his birth certificate rather than just produce the full document, not just a certification of live birth.
Psychology is a science.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs an American wanting Obama to be elected the next President and personally happy with the outcome of the presidential election resulting in a solid victory; will the "mouther" of this research and the others "it" identifies with, please quit wasting time with insulting diatribe and get to the point by telling the people it calls "birthers" where they'll find the public domain resource (as it is for everyone, including myself) indicating when and where the President was born.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGenerally, it just seems to be so much easier to deal with life's problems by immediately resolving issues with verifiable facts. Otherwise, if you're not going to "nip it in the bud" then something's usually wrong: the simplest being the false fear of the outcome being negative (something I would hate to see happen) only to learn it was nothing -- a cultural non-issue.
Not politics, just lunacy. Psychological phenomenon are fair game for science regardless of whether the subjects delusions are confounded with politics.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou need to face the truth about yourself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJim,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Obama campaign did produce his birth certificate in a timely manner, once the claim was made. There was no lack of proof.
No, it just proves that America is not color-blind - never has been. The article doesn't state that implicit social cognition is evil, it merely uses the Birther story to explain a well known psychological principle..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNative American. You are correcct, implicit social cognition does not occur only in the United States. I am amazed at how many messages here seem to be defensive reactions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey have been. Give it a rest. You seem intelligent, based on your command of English. The "feelings" you speak of are very well explained by the article, why don't you reread it?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is a scientific article about psychology, it does therefore note refer to any of the arguments, pro or con the subjects.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI heard something about this recently. I think it has to do with a predisposition to believe the government is insiduously trying to harm us by fooling us. There is a lot of truth behind this belief, and this forces implicit social cognition for these individuals in the case of the really large events of the past decades such as the Moon Landing and the 9/11 attack.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHeathen,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe author happens to believe, as I do, in a under-taught science sometimes called Social Psychology, and like any scientist, he deserves respect. Just because a number of people, for psychological reasons, have mistaken the explaination of a scientific principle for an accusation against them, doesn't mean that they are right.
Actually, this is rather big. The Daily Kos has conducted a poll indicating that 42% of all Republicans believe that Obama was not born in the US. In addition, in the South, 47% of ALL respondents have that belief. In the North and Midwest the number is more like 10%. I hope this is not too shocking for you. Further evidence along these lines is the number of respondents here who have read the article as if it were an accusation of racism against them. Subjects don't like knowing they are the subject, I guess.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUm, English is the native language of both persons. The article didn't discuss racism, nor did it paint any group as racist; it merely drew on distributions using a sample bias favoring the US population, which is often the case.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI disagree. Science can have nothing to do with political issues at all. It must merely report on matters that concern and forward science itself. Mahzarin Banaji's research is not "anecdotal reflection", but an important scientific work. Scientific American is only guilty of calling attention to this important concept in its original, notably American style, thus the title, "60-second Science". If the "anecdote" (more of a fact) quoted from Banaji's speech is too "general" for you, go to your academic library to learn more about it. The reason many of us subscribe to SciAm is to learn "somethings" about a variety of subjects in innovative ways, and not always to be challenged to become experts, thus the 60-second Science series is much appreciated.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes, such as using words like "prejudice" to discuss the ideas and opinions of others. Work like Banaji's allows us to see basic psychological principles at play in social interaction, without having to state any judgements about the beliefs of others, no matter how irrational they may seem to us.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe article doesn't criticize Republicans or Birther's, it merely states the obvious - that to Steve Mirsky, the author, and to those of us that don't hold it, the belief APPEARS to be irrational. The article you posted, while interesting in its own way, comes much closer to accusing the birthers of racism.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYour argument is devastating. My hat's off to you!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDon't forget: They're giggling, too!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisObama is the man of our age, even though he is not a scientist, but merely a politician that supports science. There is no reason that Scientific American, of all scientific magazines, should not reflect this somewhat. However, the hook of this article is not about Obama, but about you Birthers, to whom the article has clearly done a favor.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere's one at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_birth_certificate
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou can google "Obama birth certificate" to see them all.
that's funning.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat is behind the mainstream media's mindless dismissal of the so-called "birthers?" Studies done by myself, with a lifetime of observation demonstrate what is called "liberal head up the ass syndrome."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"liberals simply can't accept that someone could have a legitimate disagreement with them" says Ken.
"Therefore, they concoct all manner of specious 'sciencey' type justifications for 'explaining' why everyone else is wrong."
"It makes them feel superior," says Ken, "without having to actually justify anything. Everyone else is just suffering mental problems, you see."
Ken says he hopes that there will be cure soon for this narcissistic personality disorder.
"It really is sad to see them like this, I hope that they can be made to one day understand that OTHER people can have opinions too, and that's ok."
Ken
Lets see his father a non-US citizen and mother a transplant to Hawaii and not a citizen of Hawaii because she had not met the resident requirement of at least 4 years prior to the statehood. Soo no naturalized parents and no birth on American soil. Hum... that is not a citizen of the US not by my definition but by the Constitution.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisgeorge b:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"I wish this issue would be proved one way or the other and go away."
That is exactly the point. Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate has been observed by many people, the (Republican) Gov. of Hawaii has seen it says it is genuine, at least 2 major Hawaiian newspapers published a brith announcement within a few days of the event which makes any conspiracy theory nearly inconceivable and yet there are people like you who manage to think the matter is not settled.
Here's some more news for you:
The Earth is round, not flat
Creationism is religious doctrine,not science
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a fraud
The Masons are not working with the Templars to run the world
And Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.
'Nuff said.
Maybe it's time we stopped identifying "Americans" by their ethnic or racial background - if they are born in the US or to US citizens then they are US citizens and Americans. Either that, or we can go back to identifying the "original" immigrants as "Irish-American" and "Italian-American" (I myself am "German-American" with English, Dutch and Irish thrown in for good measure if you go back far enough), that way, those of European descent won't seem more "American" than anyone else. On second thought, I don't know that you can help a general populace that believes the former Prime Minister of England is more "American" than the President of the United States!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll that is needed to feed the masses is the few who believe seeds have been sown that will produce an eternal harvest.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this--- Phanaticles the lesser
If you;re serious about wanting "the facts" about this, try this URL: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/jul/01/obamas-birth-certificate-final-chapter-time-we-mea/
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnyone who is of mixed African ancestry is commonly referred to in this country as well as many others as black, even though we all know that there are extremely few 100% genetically African individuals who are Americans. For Obama to refer to himself as black should not be considered racist by any rational being.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnyone in this country who is of mixed African ancestry is commonly referred to as 'black'. There are very few 100% genetically African individuals in this country who are American citizens. Perhaps you would be more comfortable if they called themselves mixed white? For Obama to call himself black is not racist, just the most common use of our cultural nomenclature. And yes, you certainly are a birther, a cultural racist much like Pat Buchanan or Lou Dobbs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou're forgetting that according to US law, he is a citizen for being born in the US. Regarding his mother's residenccy, US Constitutional law would trump state law here.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's not a question of being more American than the next person. It's first and foremost about having a person as President who gives the lie to the belief, especially in the old confederacy, that those with any proportion of "blackness" are inferior people, American or not. Therefor, anything that will cast doubt on that person's authority to govern has to be a good thing in their minds.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere's a lot of denial happening in these posts! "Science for science's sake" is nonsense.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPresident Obama: why, before the election last November, did the State of Hawaii, with the concurrence of the Govenor, a Republican, seal from public access your official Birth Certificate. I had to produce one for Social Security when I applied for retirment. Why was yours sealed, possibly forever? This whole push-back against the so-called "Birthers" is simple a gimmick to get the American public to thinking that all criticizism of President Obama is only by right-wing nuts. Show me the now sequestered Obama Hawaii Birth Certificate and stop maligning ordinary and curious USA citizens!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is proof that science and politics are not a good mix. please stick to real science in the future. This kind of politicly correct junk has no place in what I always thought was the best science mag out there.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe U.S. Constitution requires that the President be a nautural-born citizen. I just want to know what country's passport Barack Obama used when he traveled to Pakistan in the early 80's at a time when travel to Pakistan was off-limits to American citizens.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMore spin, trying to make the "Birthers" look crazy, when
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisall most (and me) want is for Obama to make his life transparent instead of opaque. Release the real birth certificate, school and university records, US government records, etc. and complete acceptance will quickly follow.
Finally, no more of this nonsense in SciAm.
The comments on this article confirm the conclusions of the article. A cursory search using ye olde google came up with:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthcertificate.asp
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/barackobama/a/obama_birth_certificate.htm
If you still don't believe it you just might a corncob pipe smoking, sour mash whiskey drinking, porch sitting, banjo twanging, inbred racist.
End of story.
It's interesting that the podcast talked about the Obama birth question and ignored the equally partisan, equally paranoid, and equally wrong belief among some people that Bush had prior knowledge of 9/11. It's got a whiff of a partisan editorial slant to try to make Republicans look crazy, while ignoring the fact that as many Democrats have their own extreme beliefs as Republicans. How about some equal time to show that both sides have their extremists? It would have made for a better and less partisan podcast.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll the editors demonstrate here is that they and most social pseudo-scientists can't think objectively aout such topics as this. Common sense dictates suspicion when Obama spendas about $2 millllion dollars in legal fees to avoid paying $15 for a full long form copy of his birth certificate and showing it to America. Stick to non-emotogenic topics.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll the editors demonstrate here is that they and most social pseudo-scientists can't think objectively aout such topics as this. Common sense dictates suspicion when Obama spendas about $2 millllion dollars in legal fees to avoid paying $15 for a full long form copy of his birth certificate and showing it to America. Stick to non-emotogenic topics.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe Canadians (Yeah, I know we're 'socialists') are constantly amused by the pettiness of American politics. Really, you people need to get a life.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHugh Grant's "native language & culture is more similar to [those in the US] than Connie Chung's"? Connie Chung was born & raised in the Washington DC area. Ergo, unlike Grant her native culture IS American. Before accusing the researchers of 'painting groups as racist', maybe you should get your facts straight, like the researchers did.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOn a related theme ... a lot of Americans also have problems accepting Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Paul, Moses etc. are all .... Jews and not Europeans.
Would someone cite specific evidence that hundreds of thousands have been spent by the forces of Obama to block disclosure of records? I mean, real evidence that includes documentation from a credible person, not a partisan zealot. So many take the alleged expenditure on faith, but never cite any proof.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisC'mon, David Apple: Review the 14th Amendment, first sentence: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside." Thus your citing a a 4-year residency requirement to be a citizen of Hawaii is utterly without legal foundation. States have no authority to impose a lenght-of-residence requirement for citizenship. In case yuo missed it, the Constitution declares itself the supreme law of the land, and any statute that conflicts with it -- such as the 4-year citizenship requirement -- has no legitimacy. And how in the world would being a native-born American living in one of the states of the Union make you a non-citizen.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisgatman7, haven't you got the word? Travel to Pakistan was NOT banned in 1981, although travelers were cautioned about instability in that country. Please check your facts.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe fact that some people are racists does not imply that all objections to Obama must, necessarily, be due to his race. The question of his birthplace and eligibility to be President is a factual question that should be answered with actual evidence.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMost of the people I've read about object to Obama's policies and beliefs about government. They would object to those policies and beliefs even if the President was whiter than Opie. It is an ideological objection, not racism.
The fact that some people are racists does not imply that all objections to Obama must, necessarily, be due to his race. The question of his birthplace and eligibility to be President is a factual question that should be answered with actual evidence.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMost of the people I've read about object to Obama's policies and beliefs about government. They would object to those policies and beliefs even if the President were whiter than Opie. It is an ideological objection, not racism.
I dream of a better tomorrow when Americans can have direct access to government information without having their motives questioned. (Faith Based Data -- lol.)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishe's not my president. yeah, i've heard and seen lots of news and reports called him "the first black American president ever". anyway,he's a talented speaker. but i'll decide whether i'll like him for what he'll do in his term.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"And similar research in 2008 found that whites thought of ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair as somehow more American than Obama."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell, duh! Nationalism has always been about race. The word Nationalism comes from the Latin word Natio which means race or breed. I'm 53 yrs old and for most of my life American meant white people from northwest Europe; the farther east and south your origins, the less American you were. The US was looked upon as an enterprise of northwest Europeans that let some other people live here on conditions.
"And similar research in 2008 found that whites thought of ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair as somehow more American than Obama."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell, duh! Nationalism has always been about race. The word Nationalism comes from the Latin word Natio which means race or breed. I'm 53 yrs old and for most of my life American meant white people from northwest Europe; the farther east and south your origins, the less American you were. The US was looked upon as an enterprise of northwest Europeans that let some other people live here on conditions.
George,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes you are indeed a "birther" and irrational, and it has already been proven. Deal.
Harward MB research makes some sense. However, I am an Asiian, and not at all biased against any body,but sometimes get similar impression of minority persons at a glance, until I look at the background and qualifications of the person. This has also to do with the current politics and prevailing IMPRESSION of the minorities in the country, bias or not. In the fiftees,after the immigration of German Rocket engineers German names were associated with top scientists(although Rocketry is not a science,rather a trial and error engineering). Similarly currently Chinees and Indian are considered as top quality professionals, although they are mostly a select group of pofessionals that immigrated and the see special financial incentive to do better than that in their country of origin.President Obama have done a great deal to enhance the immage and capabilities of the minorities, and yes he is a US citizen born in Hawaii, although some even think that Hawaii is not a part of USA.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this""Implicit social cognition" does make quite a bit of sense, actually, because it's not just a matter of visual perception.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAsk a New Yorker if a Southern accent sounds more intelligent than a British one and see what they say. Inflection, jargon, subject matter, and the speaker's opinion will create a mental image long before a person is seen, whether we wish it to or not. Likewise handwriting, clothing and music choices, even location will effect our mental image of a person before they've ever done a thing. The problem is that when people don't try to overcome these base impulses, they allow themselves to fall into the trap of assumption.
Most "Truthers" believe 9/11 was an inside job because they strongly felt they couldn't trust the government, for whatever reason regardless of facts. Most "Birthers" feel the same way. Perhaps the motives are different, perhaps not, but the point is that it is prejudice in any situation, and that is what needs to be overcome.
Secrecy is the problem. And its not just his birth certificate. Key aspect of Obama's life are locked up - WHY? Transcripts, passport info, law review articles, etc. We could care less about his color. Yes, he's the president, there's no dispute. And even if he was born in Kenya, I wouldn't care if the Supreme Court ruled he is considered an American for purposes of presidential quallfications. What I care about is whether he will support and defend our rights under the Constitution, and whether he's being honest with us. In that regard he unfortunately is failing miserably. I resent a president demanding I subsidize bad personal decisions, bad business models, and failed companies. I resent an administration that stops or blocks investigations of criminals who happen to be friends of his. I resent an administration that trashes Americans speaking out against a series of bad legislation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd I no longer trust anything coming out of Harvard. Many of his cronies are from Harvard.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article is *not* a political debate. This article is utilizing a social (albeit politically charged) group to illustrate a sociological point. Perhaps they shouldn't have used anything related to politics, as the majority of commenters here seemingly cannot handle the idea that reference to a group does not infer disapproval. Your statement regarding Harvard is a perfect example of the point of the article, even if it is horribly ironic.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm sorry to admit that I had time to read all of the previous comments. Not once is it stated that every single birther voted for John McCain last fall. He was born in Panama on a military base. The Constitution states that the president must be born on American soil. I don't even have to name-call to prove my point. And some of us rednecks are actually liberal! Imagine that.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can't tell you how many times I have heard the phrase "real American" to describe those that are disrupting the town hall meetings. They think that if you are like them, I.E. white and not liberal, then you are a "real American," and anyone else is not. It's annoying, to say the least.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn fact, on CNN a host had to call a man out for using that term, saying he (he is black) is also a "real American" along with those that support health care reform, Asians, Hispanics, etc.. He asked the white guy to not use the term any more, because it's just not right to say when we are ALL "real Americans." The guy laughed and at first was not cooperative, but then he agreed to stop using the term.
Real Americans drive American. Save Big three.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe posters here who do not believe Obama is an American citizen are not interested in the evidence (the real birth certificate, the newspaper announcements, the law etc.). You can show them evidence until the cows come home and they won't accept it. They are part of a movement that has endorsed a fake alternate reality -- global warming isn't happening, US healthcare is not twice as expensive for the same results as in most other wealthy nations, "Europe" is a living hell, free markets can solve every single problem on the planet, social security is the gulag, etc. They don't question what Rush /Fox News tells them. Just as the "Swift Boaters" during the 2004 election couldn't accept Navy documentation demolishing their lies. The sad thing is that the "birther" lies are disseminated by people who know better to the ignorant they want to manipulate. And I have been at health care "town halls" where the right wingers in attendance were saying that anyone who spoke English with an accent or was not white was not "American".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThese folks are more out of touch with reality than the Communist Party in the late Soviet Union was, and their lies are just as pernicious. Let's call a spade a spade. Disagree with Obama's policies, but he was born in the USA and is a citizen. Btw, one of the "birther" posters here seems to believe that Hawaii is not part of the US. That's good for some laughs.
Is there no end to these ignorant twits who want Obama to "prove" something? All the most recent indications are that he has a birth certificate of satisfactory form from the state of Hawaii. Does this prove he was born there? I would say it does not. It could have been an elaborate hoax by his parents and others. The report and the birth certificate itself I saw reported on the internet could have been a fake and a fraud itself, created to mislead me and others. Combined with that birth certificate I saw a newspaper birth announcement of the birth. Again, could this have been all a fraud and a hoax? Yes, it could be. But really, when it was done, if we assume it was done, was there any hope of Obama being president? What would have been the point of such an elaborate fraud? Even a year before the election, who would have thought it possible. Other than Obama, I suppose. There is a reasonable amount of evidence that Obama is a US citizen, exactly what one would expect, really, for a normal US citizen, and considering his circumstances. Proving something, especially to a group that does not want to believe the evidence, is an entirely different enterprise than providing the proper and reasonable evidence. The ppeople who want to dis-believe now would seem to have the burden of proving that those documents are false.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBarack Obama's mother was an an American citizen by birth, so of course she was not "naturalized citizen". She was a natural born citizen. Furthermore, both of her parents were natural born citizens.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPresident Obama's birth in America is documented by his birth certificate and a newspaper birth anonnuncement in the local paper. Both of these are available online in several locations.
The point of this article is to investigate a possible psycological or social reason that, despite all of this, there are still loud, angry protestors who insist that he is not legally able to serve as president.
THOU DOEST PROTEST TOO MUCH...you reveal yourself scientific liberal american by putting such political tripe in a scientific magazine. Any true scientist would want absolute PROOF of <insert anything here> because of its empirical nature. Facts are stubborn things. I always welcome them. Birthers just want answers to some serious questions for example: who has asked for barack to show a legal birth cirtificate? answer: the united states supreme court. So far he has not complied. Why? What logical reason could there be to this. Is the supreme court now racist for asking like many others have. Can you imagine if the supreme court asked for Bush's birth cirtificate and he didn't comply? It is well known that on November 22, 2008 American radio WRIF morning show called the Kenyan embassy and spoke to ambassador peter ogego. They asked him "President Obama's birthplace in Kenya, is that going to be a national spot to go visit? ambassador ogego responded "it's um, already an attraction, his paternal grandmother is still alive." We should all ask why he said that. Furthermore let's go talk to grandma and clear all this up once and for all. We can find a taliban guy crouching in a building in Afghanistan in the night and blow him up with a smart bomb but not this. I for one think it's pathetic that in a country that is under rule of law, not rule of "man" that a man won't comply with the courts request. Any additional questions like the prior one just adds fuel to that fire. Face it: the birthers can't accept obama is a natural born citizen for ONE reason. Certificate of live birth is not a birth certificate. Quit reframing the question and misdirecting and just answer it and for Darwin's sake QUIT putting political crap in this magazine.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHas anyone ever requested the "proof" of American citizenship from earlier presidents? And if not, why not?? Ahhhh, the others where white....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou seem to be totally convinced that President Obama is a native born American citizen. I have a reasonable doubt but am receptive to being persuaded otherwise by the facts of the case!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy has President Obama spent $1.4 million in legal fees to-date in order to suppress the release by the State of Hawaii of his certified original birth certificate? If he has an extra $1.4 million sitting around in his bank accounts, why doesnt he contribute it to a worthwhile charity and authorize the State of Hawaii to release his certified original birth certificate? I wonder what he is trying to hide. The Certificate of Live Birth (COLB) that he posted on the Internet during his presidential campaign is a meaningless document. Up until 1972, the State of Hawaii issued COLB for someone based upon only the signed Affidavit of another person.
I look forward to your explanation/defense of Presidents Obamas stonewalling tactics. I have seen the truth leak out slowly before, with President Nixon during the Watergate cover-up!
It is not that he is an American. It is that the ati-American bias that his parents raised him with. I don't think that a singal generation Like President Obama should be in titled to hold this countries highest Offices. I think that it should be three generations at least.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am shocked to see such a blatant left-wing article on Scientific America. Wow. Have standard sunk so low? This is terrible. Where is the editorial standards? Where are the editors? This is really astounding.
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