Negative Outlets | Video

Rene Thibault | 11/14/2012

Gender and race are two of the easiest things to notice about a person, and at the same time, they can be two of the easiest things for a person to judge others by. It`s also true when it comes to politics.

While many political science experts believe that race is losing its importance when it comes to electing officials, the proliferation of social media like Facebook and Twitter are giving people new outlets for racist views.

“These are things that aren`t overt and they`re not direct, but they are part of the fabric of our social structure, for good or for bad,” said MSU political science professor Jynette Larshus.

According to a study by Floating Sheep, a group of geography academics that track Twitter posts, North Dakota ranked fourth in the nation when it came to racist, politically-oriented Tweets. The top three states were in the southern part of the country.

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