3 in 10 Americans Admit to Race Bias
 

3 in 10 Americans Admit to Race Bias

Survey Shows Age, Too, May Affect Election Views


By Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, June 22, 2008; Page A01

As Sen. Barack Obama opens his campaign as the first African American on a major party presidential ticket, nearly half of all Americans say race relations in the country are in bad shape and three in 10 acknowledge feelings of racial prejudice, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Lingering racial bias affects the public's assessments of the Democrat from Illinois, but offsetting advantages and Sen. John McCain's age could be bigger factors in determining the next occupant of the White House.
Overall, 51 percent call the current state of race relations "excellent" or "good," about the same as said so five years ago. That is a relative thaw from more negative ratings in the 1990s, but the gap between whites and blacks on the issue is now the widest it has been in polls dating to early 1992. ........
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...062101825.html

Should these stats surprise anyone?

Race relations have come a very long way in my lifetime, but still have a long way to go.

Old habits, feelings and beliefs die hard. It may take the death of a few more generations on both sides.

DA-I agree with you.
There were a few more stats in story that I found of interest:
"At the same time, there is an overwhelming public openness to the idea of electing an African American to the presidency. In a Post-ABC News poll last month, nearly nine in 10 whites said they would be comfortable with a black president. While fewer whites, about two-thirds, said they would be "entirely comfortable" with it, that was more than double the percentage of all adults who said they would be so at ease with someone entering office for the first time at age 72, which McCain (R-Ariz.) would do should he prevail in November. ".....a few more as well later on in story.

Since I just saw Avenue Q last weekend, this made me want to sing...

"Everyone's a little bit racist
Sometimes.
Doesn't mean we go
Around committing hate crimes.
Look around and you will find
No one's really color blind.
Maybe it's a fact
We all should face
Everyone makes judgments
Based on race."

I actually stats were pretty low considering this is the first time we have ever had a national candidate who is of a different color skin other than white!

NEWS FLASH: 70% OF AMERICANS LIE.

So are you, or this comment, in the 70% or 30%:confused::eek:;):D

Only in that the number seems low.

;)

****

Conducting this type of research is important because it allows our "common sense understandings of the world" to be supported or refuted. It's great to remind people that things don't go away just because people claim not to be thinking about race or because there's a black candidate for POTUS.

LOL.

This just means that these whites view Obama as "an exception," which is also why the issue of biracialism is being discussed more. It's an attempt to highlight the "anything but black" in him. But if he becomes POTUS and he skrews something up, he'll go back to being a typical NEGRO and many will say "I knew a black person couldn't be trusted in the presidency."

The fact that we're still discussing the openness to a black president is the real point. Being a racial and ethnic minority is still viewed as a pathology to many as it uneasily deviates from the norm. Similar to how people discuss having a female president, a homosexual president, a blind president, an old president, and so forth.

In some ways you are very correct.
Since the US was "born", Blacks fought and died for her.
Yet after every war, their valor was forgotten and the old beliefs were brought back up.
Even TR "forgot" that the 9Th and 10Th "Buffalo Solders" supported his Rough Riders up the hill when he was running for POTUS.

Times change slowly. As do people. And thus a Country.
"We the People....."

eh...ok....?

;)

so...what's gonna happen when a Hispanic Female who is opposed to abortion runs for POTUS.....?

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.....

It the polls bear no references, making this nothing but a piece of political propaganda. It doesn't say who they asked, where they are from, there are just so many factors that could sway the poll, but the statistics of the poll are not listed, therefore this poll cannot truly be taken seriously.

The only poll I will take seriously will be the one they do in November(called the general election)..between now and then people switch sides, change their minds, and manipulate numbers....

Nate-Good point. Perhaps the answer is this link; which was on the news story page itself:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...T2008062200049

Most definitely.

Not that questioning the research method matters for this type of faux-revelation, based on the main point versus some of the details, but that question is answered on this link. :)

ETA: This link is also on the main article. It provides a link to the washington post poll for those who were truly concerned.

Sorry I missed the link, I thought it would redirect me back to the original page. Thank you for the link to it. I still think that the statistics still leave much to be desired, things such as a breakdown of each target would have given a much more idea of how things will actually go, but it would take far too long to decide. Once again, it does say randomly selected, but it would have been nice for a regional breakdown.

K-;)

^^^^^ says that 100 percent of americans have racial bias.

LOL

You disagree?

Remember, "bias" can simply be a limited prejudgment (like "I assume all black guys I meet are better than me at basketball"), something more insidious, or something overtly racist.

It can even be "I trust people of my own race more than others" - something that is actually quite natural.

I agree with your general assertion however "racial bias" is a weighted phrase.

A less loaded way of conveying the point is that 100% of humans subconsciously and consciously have preconceived notions, stereotype, and have biases that coincide with whatever categorical distinctions there are in their culture.

As an aside: Stereotypes and prejudgments like "Asians are smarter" and "blacks can dance" aren't positive and harmless, although people assume them to be.

There have been no studies that have found that this is natural.

The tendency to trust those who look like you and/or those who you are used to being around isn't necessarily the same as trusting people of your "own race." Either way, this is very much about socialization, especially since "race" is a social construct that doesn't exist in every society and culture.

Technically, it is only natural for humans to feel most comfortable around other humans. Categorical distinctions like race, gender, and social class are created and aren't "natural."

But people shouldn't reduce the importance of these kinds of findings by saying "everyone does it." because biases range in extent and in the ability for a bias to translate into behavior. I don't care about people's biases because I don't care what's going on in people's heads. What I care about is outward manifestations in terms of individual and institutional level exclusion and unfair treatment. And that doesn't happen equally because not everyone has the power and opportunity to exclude people from public office, jobs, and so forth. Folks can think whatever they want to, just don't try to impact my life chances based on your opinions.

i thought this was true

Which makes the dumb Asians not Asian enough.

oh yea, brains are sexy.

wait...deja vu?

they're not.

those are azns.

oh yea, i'm waiting on FB.

Have you had to snatch a lot of "Asian cards" from nondeserving Asians?

Time keeps on ticking.....

i have. i hem asian people up all the time, and administer the math portion of the SAT to make sure they're made right asians.

LOL....

This is where I must try to be "down with the people" and share (again) that I was a member of the Asian Interest Association as an undergrad. See, I'm down with "you people."

Ebony And Yellow Live Together In Perfect Harm......

wait.....that doesn't rhyme.

if you didn't contribute during the potlucks, you aren't real.

You're a trouble maker. :p

Agreed completely, and mostly my point - we've strayed from the real meaning of "bias" to the point where apparently we now think it's "overt prejudice or racism." Especially to the aside - there are dozens of examples in that light.

"Natural" was a poor choice of words - you're correct - where "quite likely" or even "common" would work best.

Psychological decision making studies have shown that people can only successfully account for their own racial biases and prejudices when they are forced to actually consider and account for them as part of the decision process - that is, when people are told they should account, they largely do. When left to their own devices, they do not.

The "everyone does it" mentality is NOT what I'm pushing - rather, the fact that only 30% come to the fore means that we're either being too hard-line in defining bias (allowing subtle yet pernicious things to "fall through the cracks," which leads to a plateau effect of improvement but not total eradication of racial issues), or people are not yet facing up to their own biases in the way necessary to account for (if not confront) them.

Thanks for clarifying.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/images/Pol...ndPolitics.pdf

37. Generally speaking, do you think race relations in the United States are
excellent, good, not so good or poor?
--- Positive --- ----- Negative ---
NET Ex. Good NET Not good Poor No opinion
6/15/08 All 51 4 47 47 36 12 1
Whites53 3 50 46 36 10 1
Blacks 36 4 32 63 43 20 1

I agree. It doesn't surprise me either. I mentioned this in another thread, that I think all of us hold unconscious beliefs about different groups of people. It's not just black and white, but it can be male and female, fat and thin, old and young, gay and straight ect ect. I just think certain social scenarios can automatically activate implicit stereotypes and attitudes. I think this is what affects our perceptions, judgements and behavior. People don't realize it, but I honestly think that many of our implicit associations about social groups form before we're old enough to consider them rationally.