Far Fewer Consider Racism Big Problem

[Cash_thatswhatiwant]

As President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take office, far fewer black and white Americans say they view racism as "a big problem" in American society than said so in mid-1996, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

With the nation poised to inaugurate its first African American president, the survey found that just over a quarter of all Americans said they see racism as a large societal problem, less than half of the 54 percent who said so about a dozen years ago. Americans also have high hopes that Obama -- who is of mixed-race parentage but refers to himself as African American -- will inspire an improvement in race relations.

But even as declining numbers of Americans see racism as a big problem for the country, there has been little change in the amount of racism people perceive in their local communities. The survey also found that there has been little change over the past six years in the proportion of African Americans who said they have experienced racial bias in housing, employment and other areas.

<snip>

The poll shows continued wide disparities over how people of both races perceive the issue, and there has been no letup in the numbers sensing discrimination where they live.

In the new survey, 44 percent of blacks and 22 percent of whites continue to see racism as a large societal problem. In 1996, 70 percent of blacks and 52 percent of whites held that view.

Conversely, 28 percent of whites and 15 percent of blacks in the new survey said they see racism as a small problem, or no problem at all.

Racial disparities are also apparent when people were asked whether African Americans have achieved or will achieve racial equality in this country. Seventy-three percent of all those surveyed said African Americans have reached or will soon reach equality, including three-quarters of whites and just over half of blacks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/18/AR2009011802538.html

[BlooInBloo]

1. (shrug) Predictable. It's what happens when the fox guards the henhouse.

[Lilyeye]

2. This doesn't surprise me.

I'm 21 and I have often heard someone say "Wow I didn't know people like that still existed" when they hear someone make a racist comment. However, when you're working around a bunch of bitter repukes in a conservative county you know better.

[marshall]

3. This is step one in the right direction

There are degrees of racism, and we are gradually shedding them. Not everyone is an in your face rude racist, and some racism exists without the people even considering themselves as racists. Even Joe Biden said of Obama: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," That definitely says something about men like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and other high profile black men. But I'm sure Biden's attitude has been changed since he said that comment a little over a year ago, and we will all continue to evolve.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. I find it interesting that they say he is of mixed race and yet

calls himself African American. In doing a little research, I don't think any of the African-Americans who have served in our Congress were anything but of mixed race--the first two senators, Hiram Rhodes Revels and Blanche Bruce (both of MS) had white fathers. To imply, as this article does, that the term "African-American" applies only to those of pure African ancestry is ridiculous and ignores the historical facts.