Social Distance 
 

Tables: 5.1B, 5.3, Supplement 
 

On the issue of preferred social distance from whites, there has always been almost universal acceptance of integration in the settings that have been asked about in surveys.  None of the questions appearing in the earlier editions of the book have been replicated in recent years, likely due to the lack of variation.  However, two questions—one on housing and one on inter-racial marriage—have been asked in recent years and are most useful as counterpoints to the results reported for whites’ preferred social distance.  Although the time series does not meet our general requirement of at least 10 years worth of data, we nevertheless include it here.  Just as African Americans have opposed laws against inter-racial marriage, they also report quite low levels of opposition to inter-racial marriage.  In 2006, just 8 percent were “opposed” to a close relative or family member marrying a white person.  The Gallup version of this question shows a decline from about 1 in 4 blacks objecting in 1972, to just about 1 in 10 in 2004.  A question in which blacks were asked if they would oppose living in a neighborhood that was half white shows very little opposition to such a neighborhood—just 7 percent either somewhat or strongly opposed this in 2006.  It is worth noting that the comparison figure for whites—those who would be opposed to living in a half-black neighborhood, for example, was 24 percent—or over 3 times as many (see figure 10). 
 
 

Figure 10. Whites’ and Blacks’ Attitudes Toward Living and Marrying “other” Race (NORC) 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Live w/Blks = Whites’ attitudes about living in a neighborhood with black neighbors

Marry Blks = Whites’ attitudes about a relative marrying a black person

Live w/Whts = Blacks’ attitudes about living in a neighborhood with white neighbors

Marry Whts = Blacks’ attitudes about a relative marrying a white person 
 

One additional new social distance question asks blacks how close they feel to whites and how close they feel to blacks.  In the table, we report the differences that blacks report in their levels of closeness to whites and blacks.  To be sure, a higher percentage of blacks report being closer to blacks than whites; interestingly, there has been some decline in this sentiment—and a corresponding increase in the percentage of African Americans who report feeling no differences in their closeness to whites and blacks.  In 2006, 53 percent of blacks said they feel closer to blacks than whites; down from 62 percent in 1996.  Recall that whites showed almost no change in the differences in the levels of closeness over this same time period. 
 

Miscellaneous Questions 
 

Table: 5.6 
 

As was the case with whites, there has been little change in the thermometer ratings that African Americans give to whites and blacks; in 2004, the means were 88 and 73, respectively.  This is essentially what the figures have been throughout the time series. 
 

Finally, if anything, there has been a decline in agreement with the statement that “blacks shouldn’t push themselves where they are not wanted.”  In other words, blacks are increasingly rejecting this statement.   
 
 

General Summary of African American Racial Attitudes 
 

On many of the dimensions of racial attitudes that our long-term surveys have tapped, there has been little change in African American attitudes.  This was true when the 2^nd edition of the book was published, and continues to be true today.  To some extent, the lack of change is because of the high levels of agreement with the racially liberal position that had already been reached, especially on questions related to the principles of racial equality and social distance.  At this point in time, for many questions, white attitudes have “caught up” with black attitudes.  However, on questions related to implementation, affirmative action, and explanations of inequality, the black-white gap persists.  African Americans are more likely than whites to support race-targeted policies (e.g., implementation of equality, government expenditures, and preferential treatment).  And they are also to a much greater extent likely to perceive that African Americans face substantial structural barriers in American society.  Despite this racial gap, it is also the case that in recent years there is some evidence that this gap has narrowed—a narrowing caused by African American respondents becoming less likely to perceive discrimination and more likely to oppose some kinds of racial policies.  In other words, African American attitudes are moving in a direction that brings them slightly closer to white attitudes.  Methodological limitations of these national survey data make it difficult to know how to interpret this somewhat conservative turn.  First, because of small sample sizes in any given year of the survey, it is unfortunately not possible to tell whether there are subgroups in the African American population that are more likely to have shifted attitudes than others.     
 

Second, and perhaps more importantly, there is the persistent challenge of race of interviewer effects.  We know that African American respondents interviewed by white interviewers for some (though not all) racial questions tend to give different answers (e.g. Davis 1997; Krysan and Couper 2003).  Typically the effects run towards more conservative responses when an interviewer is white.     
 

Beginning in 1988, the ISR surveys have provided information on race of interviewer, which allows us to determine what percentage of African American respondents were interviewed by white interviewers.  There have been slight variations over the past several decades in these levels, but African American respondents across all years are overwhelmingly likely to be interviewed by white interviewers (with a range of 83 percent to 99 percent).  On the one hand, given the persistently low race-matching of interviewer and respondent, one might conclude that any changes over time in actual responses could not be explained by race of interviewer, since the racial mis-matching between respondent and interviewer has been essentially unchanged.  However, this pattern, taken together with the trends we observed for the attitudes of white respondents on these kinds of questions (e.g., a declining recognition of discrimination), raises a concern.  That is, the racial climate (vis-a-vis whites’ attitudes) in which African Americans are answering these questions has changed in a direction of being less sympathetic on these particular issues.  It is possible that the effect of being interviewed by a white interviewer has become greater over time—so that even a stable level of non-matching of interviewer and respondent may have a different impact in the contemporary racial climate where whites are decreasingly sympathetic to the idea that discrimination persists.  The conservative trend in African American attitudes, then, could be a result of the greater consequences of race mis-matching rather than being entirely due to a more conservative turn among African American respondents.  To be sure, more complete studies with greater numbers of African American respondents are necessary to test this and other hypotheses about the current state of African American attitudes.   
 

 
 

Footnotes
 

1. This document provides data updates and basic analyses based on the volume Racial Attitudes in America: Trends and Interpretations, Revised Edition, by Howard Schuman, Charlotte Steeh, Lawrence Bobo and Maria Krysan (Harvard University Press, 1997).
2. Here and throughout the document, table numbers correspond to those used in the original book, Racial Attitudes in America: Trends and Interpretations, Revised Edition (Harvard University Press, 1997). To see the full trend data for all questions, one must combine the tables that appear in the original book, with those provided on the updated website at http://www.igpa.uillinois.edu/programs/racialAttitudes/

 

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