Pew: 88% blacks say whites need to do more to give equal rights

In a three-month survey of 3,769 adults — 1,799 whites, 1,004 blacks and 654 Hispanics — Pew found that whites and blacks have starkly different views on race and race relations.

For example, many more blacks than whites believe the country has to provide more fairness to them. From the survey:

— An overwhelming majority of blacks (88%) say the country needs to continue making changes for blacks to have equal rights with whites, but 43% are skeptical that such changes will ever occur.

— A much lower share of whites (53%) say the country still has work to do for blacks to achieve equal rights with whites, and only 11% express doubt that these changes will come.

Blacks and whites also disagree on how blacks are treated in America. From Pew:

“By large margins, blacks are more likely than whites to say black people are treated less fairly in the workplace (a difference of 42 percentage points), when applying for a loan or mortgage (41 points), in dealing with the police (34 points), in the courts (32 points), in stores or restaurants (28 points), and when voting in elections (23 points). By a margin of at least 20 percentage points, blacks are also more likely than whites to say racial discrimination (70% vs. 36%), lower quality schools (75% vs. 53%) and lack of jobs (66% vs. 45%) are major reasons that blacks may have a harder time getting ahead than whites.”

They don’t agree on President Obama’s impact on fixing race relations either, with 51 percent blacks believing he has helped while just 28 percent of whites agree.

Big numbers of blacks also said that they have been discriminated against, and people have “acted as if they were suspicious of them because of their race.”

The full report is here.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]