Racial Attitudes: Summary of updates

AFRICAN AMERICAN RACIAL ATTITUDES 

Principles, Implementation, and Affirmative Action 
 

Tables: 5.1B, 5.2, 5.5A, 5.5B, 5.5B, Supplement  
 

Principles of Equality.
African Americans have consistently shown almost universal support for the principles of racial equality; as such, the few questions on the topic that have more recent data show little change simply because they had already reached their maximum.  As has been the case since 1982, over 90 percent of African Americans oppose laws against inter-racial marriage.  Whites, as noted earlier, are closing this gap—though it has not yet completely closed, since 10 percent of whites continue to support such laws.   
 

Implementation of Equality. 
The gap between support for principles and for their implementation has always been narrower for African Americans than for whites—though it is worth noting that the gap nevertheless does exist.  In addition, whites and African Americans show a similar trend in terms of a decline in the government “seeing to it” and an increase in “no interest.”  To be sure, African Americans have higher levels of support than whites for the government’s role in ensuring, for example, that black and white children go to the same schools.  But that support has declined in recent years.  In 2000, support had dropped to just 50 percent--compared to a high of 90 percent in 1968.  Again, it is not that African Americans now feel that it is “not the government’s business”; rather, there is a growth in those indicating they “do not have enough concern or interest” to favor one side over the other.  Interestingly, when the question is about ensuring fair treatment in jobs, there is stronger support—though, again, with some evidence of a decline in government involvement and an increase in the “no interest” response (see Figure 6). 
 

Figure 6. Trend in Black Support for Federal Job Implementation (ISR) 
 

A community-wide vote on the housing issue, however, continues to show unwavering support: in 2006, as has been true since the mid-1970s, over three-fourths of African Americans supported a law that says homeowners cannot discriminate on the basis of race when selling their homes.   
 

Affirmative Action. 
Turning to questions that ask about more affirmative steps, focusing first on government expenditures, there has been virtually no change in African American attitudes (see figure 7).  The modal response is that the government is not doing enough.  In 2006, 81% of African Americans indicated that the government was spending “too little” to improve the conditions of blacks.  This has barely changed since the question was first asked in 1973.  Two questions that ask if the government should help blacks also show little trend over time.  For example, an ISR question shows that just about 1 out of 2 African Americans in 2004 thought the government should help blacks (as opposed to blacks helping themselves).  This is substantially higher than the levels for white respondents—and shows no change over time.  Only for a NORC question that places government assistance in the context of overcoming the effects of discrimination is there a trend towards less government involvement. From 1975 to 2006, the percentage who indicated that the government should help blacks dropped from 67 percent to 44 percent. 
 

Figure 7. Trend in Blacks’ Government Expenditures Attitudes 
 

One of the most substantial racial differences in race-related attitudes in the contemporary era is the question of attitudes toward preferential treatment based on race.  For the most part, such policies enjoy widespread opposition among whites—an opposition that has generally shown little change. Support among African Americans for preferences in hiring and promotion is by no means universal.  However, African Americans consistently report high levels of support, and there has been rather little change in these levels.  There is, however, some sign of a weakening of this support in recent years, especially in a NORC question for which there are trend data from 1994 to 2006 (see figure 8).  
 
 

Figure 8. Trend in Black Attitudes Towards Preferences in Hiring and Promotion 
 

Explanations of Inequality and Perceptions of Discrimination  
 

Tables: 5.4A, 5.4A, Supplement, 5.4B, 5.4B, Supplement 
 

Explanations for Racial Inequality. 
From 1985 to 1994, just about 80 percent of African Americans agreed that discrimination was a cause of racial inequality.  What appeared to be a decline in endorsing this explanation as of 1996 appears to have held up.  That is, although there have been some fluctuations (with an unexplainable dip in 2002), the number has remained at the lower level; in 2006, it was 58 percent.  Nevertheless, despite this downturn, discrimination remains African Americans’ most frequently endorsed explanation for racial inequality (see figure 9).  Small sample sizes make it very difficult to identify the groups who are driving this reduction in recognition of discrimination as a cause of racial inequality.  For the most part, throughout the time period for which data are available, southern blacks have been less likely to acknowledge discrimination than non-southerner blacks: in 2002, 41 percent of southerners endorsed this explanation, compared to 59 percent of non-southerners.  However, both regions of the country showed declines in the levels of endorsement across the time period.   

Figure 9. Trends in Blacks’ Explanations for Inequality (NORC) 
 
 

Similarly, there are somewhat fewer African Americans who endorse lack of access to education, the other structurally based cause of racial inequality included in the survey, from a high of 75 percent in 1985, to just 50 percent in the recent decade.  Finally, there has been little change in the attribution of inequality to less in-born ability or a lack of motivation, with the former exceedingly unpopular, and the latter endorsed by about 4 out of 10 African Americans in recent years.   
 

Interestingly, although the NORC question that seems to imply current discrimination as a cause of persistent inequality has enjoyed less support in recent years, in a related question—where the emphasis is on the lingering effects of slavery and discrimination—the percentage recognizing discrimination’s effects remains high.  The most recent data—2004—reveal that nearly 3 out of 4 African Americans agree that “generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class.”  This has remained essentially unchanged since the mid-1980s.   
 

Perceptions of Discrimination.
One of the key lessons from the series of questions from Gallup about discrimination is the striking racial differences in the belief that African Americans face discrimination.  For example, in 2004, a clear majority of African Americans believed that blacks did not have “as good a chance as white people to get any kind of job for which they are qualified.”  Though declining slightly, this has been the modal response since the question was asked.  Whites, by contrast, are unlikely to acknowledge that blacks are treated unfairly:  just over 20 percent in 2004 agreed with this statement.   
 

Another set of questions asking whether blacks are treated unfairly in a range of settings (on the job, in neighborhood shops, downtown, in restaurants, and by the police) also show fairly widespread recognition among African Americans that whites and blacks are not treated equally.  This ranges from a high of 70 percent who reported that blacks are treated less fairly by the police, to just over one-half who said it was the case on the job, and between 37 percent and 43 percent who said blacks were treated less fairly in a variety of other public places.  Since 1997, when the questions were first asked, there is some evidence of very slight declines, but a number of fluctuations—both up and down—make it difficult to determine if the changes are random noise, or the evidence of actual overall declines.