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by rayiner 2586 days ago
> I think conservatives are mostly white peoples and they don’t see it happening

It should be noted that while “minorities” (i.e. black and Hispanic people) were disproportionately targeted by stop and frisk, 53% of hispanic people polled supported the program (similar to the 57% of white people who supported it). Indeed, 25% of black people polled supported the program: https://www.blackenterprise.com/nypd-stop-and-frisk-poll-rac.... When you account for the fact that people who vote are older and more conservative than the general public answering polling questions, it’s quite probable that a significant majority of Hispanic voters and a large minority of black voters supported the program. It’s disrespectful to all those people to say that only white people could support the program.

I personally think the program is unconstitutional. But there is a real danger in assuming that “minorities” have liberal policy views. Their voting with democrats because of certain key issues obscures the large representation of conservatism within minority groups. People tend to pretend like black conservatives don't exist, but almost as many black people consider themselves conservative (22%) as white people who consider themselves liberal (24%). Hispanics, meanwhile, are evenly split between conservatives, moderates, and liberals: https://news.gallup.com/poll/245813/leans-conservative-liber....

Views on marijuana legalization are a good example: https://www.people-press.org/2014/04/02/section-2-views-of-m.... 55% of whites, 60% of blacks, but only 43% of hispanics believe marijuana should be legal. Twice as many hispanic people (39%) and slightly more black people (23%) support jail time for minor marijuana possession, as compared to white people (19%). (Remarkably, Hispanics as a group support jail time for minor possession at higher rates than Republicans as a group.)

Likewise with mandatory minimums, 30% of whites, 33% of blacks, and 41% of hispanics view reducing mandatory minimums for drug crimes to be a "bad thing." Hispanics are much closer to republicans (45%) than to democrats (29%) on that measure, even though hispanics overwhelmingly vote Democrat. You see similar results with the death penalty, with almost half of hispanics supporting it, and a third of black people.