The online edition of The Atlantic is running an article entitled "Can Google Predict the Impact of Racism on a Presidential Election?" It focuses on a study that tries to make a case for linking Google searches for racially-sensitive terms with election results to "reveal what Americans truly think." Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Dave Lucas spoke with two community leaders to find out "what THEY truly think" about racism.
The results rank upstate New York behind West Virgina as the second-most racist region of the United States, based on the amount of derogatory material about African-Americans that individuals typed into the Google search bar.
Click here to view the Atlantic article.
For this report, I spoke with Father Blake Rider, the rector at Christ Episcopal church in Poughkeepsie - and - Marlon Anderson of Albany, a longtime community advocate who made a run for Mayor in the last election. Both Anderson and Rider acknowledge, that in their respective cities, there are healthy numbers of interracial friendships and marriages --- and many bi-racial children - children both men hope will someday flourish in a more just and tolerant society.
