That's A Really Quiet 48 Percent

Some interesting stuff on ESPN.com today ... ESPN/ABC News polled Americans to see how they felt about Barry Bonds eclipsing Hank Aaron's homerun record. As it turns out, black people don't hate Barry Bonds nearly as much as white people hate Barry Bonds.

However, race plays a unique role. Black fans in the survey are more than twice as likely to want Bonds to break Aaron's record (74 percent to 28 percent), and 37 percent of black fans think Bonds used steroids, compared to 76 percent of white fans.

Blacks are nearly twice as likely to think Bonds has been treated unfairly (46 percent to 25 percent). Why? The survey found that 41 percent of black fans think this is due to the steroids issue, 25 percent think it's because of his race, and 21 percent blame Bonds' personality.

I'm not sure of all the ramifications here, and I don't feel like playing amateur sociologist. But one of the interesting things about it, pointed out by Jayson Stark, is that it certainly seems like all of America is rooting against Barry Bonds, and not just 52%. The significant thing here might not be what we're learning about Americans, but what we're learning about how the media shapes and presents public sentiment.

Americans conflicted about Bonds' home run chase [ESPN.com] Racial issues hover over the chase [ESPN.com]