African Americans still feel the weight of discrimination resulting from the nation’s history of slavery and half are skeptical racial equality will ever happen in the United States, according to a new survey on race in America.
The Pew Research Center found that “Blacks are particularly gloomy about the country’s racial progress.”
The survey found that many have essentially given up on ever reaching par with whites.
“Blacks are skeptical about prospects for racial equality. Most blacks (64 percent) who say the country hasn’t gone far enough in giving black people equal rights with whites – and half of all black adults – say it’s not too or not at all likely that the country will eventually achieve racial equality,” said the new survey released Tuesday.
Many blame the lingering stain of slavery, the poll suggested.
“Blacks are by far the most likely to say slavery continues to have an impact. More than eight-in-ten say slavery affects the position of black people at least a fair amount, including 59 percent who say it does so a great deal,” said the survey.
African Americans also feel held back due to their race, and about 20% feel that all whites are prejudiced against them.
“Among blacks, one-in-five say all or most white people in the U.S. are prejudiced against black people; 6 percent of whites say the same,” said the sweeping survey.
Key points from Pew’s release on its survey:
- A majority of Americans (56%) think President Donald Trump has made race relations worse; just 15% say he has improved race relations, and another 13% say he has tried but failed to make progress on this issue.
- Roughly two-thirds say it’s become more common for people to express racist views since Trump became president; 45% say this has become more acceptable.
- Majorities of blacks (87%) and whites (61%) say blacks are treated less fairly than whites by the criminal justice system and in dealing with the police (84% and 63%, respectively).
- Blacks are far more likely than other groups to say their race is very or extremely important to how they think about themselves, but about half or more Hispanics and Asians also say being Hispanic or Asian, respectively, is central to their overall identity; only 15% of whites say the same about being white.
- Black and white adults have similar views on the use of the N-word. Seven-in-10 adults, including similar shares of blacks and whites, say they, personally, think it’s never acceptable for a white person to use the N-word; 13% say this is rarely acceptable, and about one-in-10 say it is always (3%) or sometimes (6%) acceptable for a white person to use the N-word. About four-in-10 say it’s never acceptable for a black person to use the N-word.
