Stanford political science Professor Hakeem Jefferson wrote a piece for FiveThirtyEight attempting to explain why racist white Republicans often are willing to vote for black candidates. But before I get too deep into his analysis, I just want to point out something obvious.

I am a white progressive-minded Democrat and I very much enjoy seeing culturally rural or Southern whites deliver anti-Republican messages, especially if the messages have progressive components. This is because statistically, I expect these citizens to be hostile to my beliefs and political goals. When I discover that they’re my allies, it gives me feeling of surprise, gratitude and good will. I’d absolutely vote for a person like this, despite not myself being rural or Southern. I also see these folks as good messengers. They’re the best people to counter the argument that Democrats are anti-rural or anti-Southern or anti-White.

I make this point because I can’t rightly criticize someone else for behaving the same way I behave or feeling similarly to how I feel. I absolutely understand why a white Republican would place a little extra value on a black Republican.

There is, however one very important difference between these two scenarios.

Now, I’ll confess to harboring some anti-rural and anti-Southern feelings, but they’re strictly political. I know who my political opponents are and in which parts of the country they are most numerous. In this sense, I’m not much different from a Republican who doesn’t have any racist sentiments but still somewhat resents the culture and political opposition they see in racially diverse urban and suburban areas of the country.

But…and it’s an important “but”…I do not have a single political belief or goal that is intentionally hostile to rural or Southern interests. Sure, there are some cultural issues like abortion and gay rights, where I’m on the other side from the majority of rural and Southern whites, but there’s no policy I support simply because it would take resources away from them or make their lives more difficult. I can’t cite any example where I advocate something because it will result in me having more and them having less. I don’t support making it harder from them to vote, and if I support policies that might disproportionately hurt their local economies (on climate, for example), it’s not because I want to harm them but because I want to slow global warming.

As a result, I won’t point to some white rural or Southern Democrat that I support and suggest that my support proves that I’m not anti-rural or anti-Southern. The truth is, I want to win rural and Southern whites over to my side, and I believe the policies I support will benefit most of them more than the policies the GOP espouses.

Now, it’s true that some conservatives are a true mirror image of what I’m describing here. They want urban and minority support and genuinely believe that their policies will benefit urban and minority voters more than the policies the Democrats espouse. But Prof. Jefferson is concerned with Republican voters who believe “that Black Americans have too much influence on U.S. politics” or agree with the statement that “most African Americans are more violent than most whites.” In another place, Jefferson refers to these voters as “overtly prejudiced whites” who hold “anti-black views.” I may have some anti-rural and anti-Southern prejudices, and I feel like the Electoral College gives them too much influence in American politics, but I don’t have an actual animus towards them as a group.

These anti-black voters value black Republicans and support them in large part because they think it will defuse the charge that they are anti-black. I value rural and Southern white Democrats for a different reason. I think they’ll do a better job than I can of persuading people in their communities to support progressive policies.

I’m drawing a distinction here, but it’s admittedly not a huge distinction. The human nature is very similar on both sides of the equation. It’s a battle to convince people that you’re on their side. Too many rural and Southern voters think I’m their enemy. I want to convince them otherwise. For Republicans, racist or not, too many minority voters (for their political interests) think their party is racist. They cling to anything that might change that impression.

So, a racist white Republican might support a black Republican for the specific and cynical purpose that they think it will help their preferred political party win more seats. My support for rural or Southern white Democrat is also related to my desire to win more seats, but it lacks a cynical component.

Where I might drift into cynicism is actually quite a bit different. For example, I might support a Democrat who shares very few of my political beliefs simply because they’re running in a state or district where a progressive candidate has no chance. In this case, I’m actually compromising my beliefs in search of something I value more, like winning a legislative majority. The racist Republican doesn’t compromise his or her beliefs as readily, if at all. If a black Republican sounds like a Democrat, especially on racial issues, they won’t support them.

This distinction can also be exaggerated, though, as there are many Democratic voters who are committed enough to certain issues–reproductive rights, for example–that they won’t support an anti-choice Democrat even if that candidate is running for a seat in a heavily anti-choice district against an anti-choice Republican. If we’re talking about just anti-black Republican support for black candidates, then we need to be careful to compare them to a similar subset of Democrats. How many Democrats will vote for a pro-choice Republican but not for any Republican who actually sounds like a Republican on reproductive rights?

In the end, there isn’t any great mystery about why some racist white Republicans will support black candidates who sound like conservative white candidates. It’s not some giant anomaly, although there isn’t a precise corollary on the Democratic side, and certainly not one that is as troubling.