Support for war with Iraq divided by gender and race

A recent poll shows racial and gender divisions regarding support for a war with Iraq. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press poll found that 65 percent of Caucasians were in favor of a war with Iraq, while 25 percent of Caucasians were opposed to military action. Forty-one percent of African-Americans said that they are in favor of military action, while 48 percent were opposed the war. Among Hispanics, the Pew Hispanic Center poll found that 48 percent of Hispanics overall approved of military action, yet native-born Hispanics had a higher approval at 52 percent than foreign-born Hispanics, whom polled at 46 percent. Dr. Robert Swansbrough, political science professor and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said culturalization contributes to the gender gap concerning the war.

"On war, we have historically found that in polling women and men, women are less-inclined to support war conflict because of their children and husbands, and are very, very concerned in terms of the human costs of war," said Swansborough. "Traditionally, there has always been a little bit of a difference between the attitudes of women and men."

Though the women in the Pew poll made up 56 percent of those supporting the war, while 32 percent were against war, Swansbrough said that after Sept.11, the attitudes of women slightly changed, and the gender gap began to close.

"The interesting thing happened after 9/11, because that was on our shores," said Swansbrough. "With such horrifying television images, for a while women, particularly in the early stages of the war on terror focusing on Afghanistan, were almost more hawkish than men because of their fear that this was going to harm their families, and it was here in the United States directly."

However, the gap is not completely closed between women of different political parties.

"On the war on Iraq, we've found that gap opening again, with women much more dubious about the wisdom of war," said Swansbrough. "We're talking about Democratic and Independent women that that are spreading the gap now."

Among African-American and Hispanic lawmakers, the support of war has been split among the caucuses.

Out of the 37 members of the Congressional Black Caucus, only four favored President Bush's measure to a war with Iraq in Oct. 2002.

"[African Americans] don't feel directly threatened, and they feel it's a war being manufactured, with memories coming back from Vietnam, where proportionately African Americans and Hispanics lost more men because of lower socioeconomic circumstances where they couldn't get draft deferments," said Swansbrough. "They are not generally supportive of the war and question the motivation in terms of oil and a power game, while expressing much greater reservation about the wisdom of going to war. That has held up through this period of time."

Swansbrough believes that this controversy will strike lower ratings for President Bush.

"It also reflects lower assessments of George W. Bush, where as there was strong support for Bill Clinton, and African-Americans voted overwhelmingly for Al Gore. However, they still expressed considerably less support for President George W. Bush than Caucasians, even after 9/11."

Bush received less than 10 percent of the Afican American vote in the presidential elections in 2000.

African-American Cynethia Sims, a Knoxville, Tenn., sophomore, said she does not support the war.

"I feel that we're going over there and bombing them, and then we'll be building them back up," said Sims. "We are acting out of fear. When you operate out of fear, you can go about handling things the wrong way."

The Hispanic caucus did not support the measure and none of the 16 members approved the measure in Oct. 2002. The measure had support from three Hispanic Republicans, who were not members of the caucus.

"With native born Hispanics, they have been socialized in our schools, even in terms of inculcating with a deep patriotism for the flag," said Swansbrough. "If they were born in Latin America and still have ties back there, Mexico is not supporting us in this war, and much of Latin America is not really keen. We've gotten tacit endorsements but not any troops."



Veiws on war
*65 percent of Caucasians are in favor of the war
*25 percent are opposed to war
*41 percent of African Americans are in favor of the war
*48 percent are opposed to the war
*48 percent of Hispanics are in favor of the war
*52 percent are opposed to the war