It can be dangerous, bordering on wrong, to make assumptions about the views of others, and that definitely includes views on race. But data, even poll data, which is always accompanied by a margin for error, is one of our best tools for understanding the views of large groups of our fellow Americans.
In July, the Pew Research Center surveyed a large (10,221) sample on racial attitudes. The results, when broken down by political party and race, portrays a country that is alarmingly (if, perhaps not surprisingly) divided. I’ll pass along a few of the poll results, then link you to the full Pew writeup.
For example, in the total sample, when asked whether more needs to be done to overcome the legacy of racism, a slight majority of 51 percent of respondents said “little or nothing more needs to be done.”
The 49 percent who favor doing more about racial equality broke down almost evenly between 25 percent who agreed with the statement that “because they are fundamentally biased against some racial and ethnic groups, most U.S. laws and institutions need to be completely rebuilt,” and 24 percent who rejected “completely rebuilt” and agreed with the statement that “while there are many inequities in U.S. laws and institutions, necessary changes can be made by working within current systems.”
The next level of analysis was to break those responses down by political party and by race.
Among Black Americans, 77 percent favor doing a lot more to overcome racial bias, compared to 23 percent who said little or nothing needs to be done.
But by 58-42 percent, a solid majority of white Americans favored “doing little or nothing” to ensure legal rights for all Americans regardless of their race.”
On that question, as on many others in the survey, a majority of Latino and Asian Americans agreed that more needs to be done, but in lower numbers than the 77 percent of Blacks who gave that answer.
The stark but not particularly surprising partisan breakdown went like this:
Among Democrats, 73 percent favored doing more to overcome racism (40 percent favored “fundamental change”/33 percent believed necessary change could be made working with existing systems).
Among Republicans just 7 percent endorsed “fundamental” change, 14 percent more favored making needed, but not “fundamental” change, for a total of 21 percent of Republicans who favored some level of effort to overcome racial bias.
The full results of the Pew poll can be accessed via this link.
The political economic and cultural divisions in the USA today are centered around racism and white privilege. If it wasn’t obvious before Barack Obama became president and the backlash and craziness ensued, the Pew results should make it abundantly clear.
But the same folks who find a need to dispute Global Warming, COVID, Gerrymandering, fairness in public policy (taxes, safety nets, expansion of infrastructure and anti-poverty initiatives) also dispute their own biases.
If the person blocking the exit in a burning theater is a reactionary authority figure (governor, party leader, ex-president) must the rest of the people be doomed to die?
The fascists are clearly motivated by fear, as they express over and over with their racist and white privileged stance on America herself.
I was just telling a friend the other day, if fascism is the unification of the State and Corporations to build a New World Order of total global domination, do you really think Trump is the first or only American Fascist leader? I mean, Trump may have been an aspiring autocrat, but he did not unify the State, Intelligence and Big Tech to censor that which the experts deem mis, dis and mal information.
The experts didn’t censor anything anything. The only things that have been censored on the big platforms like Facebook and Twitter – and only after many chances – are objective falsehoods about things like Covid and elections. The only people crying censorship are the liars themselves.
You’ve changed the meaning a bit. According to Merriam-Webster, fascism is:
“1 : Fascism : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Italian Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized, autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2 : any tendency toward or actual exercise of severe autocratic or dictatorial control (as over others within an organization).”
I fully expect much will be done to make a BIPOC elite ruling class and PMC (professional managerial class), congratulating itself for the good work it does. As for those “essential” minority and white working poor, that 50% of America that can’t afford a 1-bedroom in most cities, I fully expect their lives to become ever more precarious, and their numbers to grow.
That sentiment assures the fears that drive and sustain racial reactions to demographic “predestination”.
The prediction has no basis but fear.
That prediction has basis in the economic trends of the last 40 years and every empire that has come before.
It is shocking to me that 51% of respondents think little or nothing more needs to be done about systemic racism.
This seems to require belief that the high correlations between race and poverty, or race and incarceration, are tied not to systemic racism, but some other cause.
Fifty-one percent think nothing needs to be done? How is that possible? My question is, how are we able to have over half of the population actually think everything is hunky dory regarding issues of race in this country? Don’t they read the news? Where do they get their information?
Perhaps this touches some nerves, and this is why the opposition to equity awareness is so intense and overheated. It is common knowledge in Psychology 101 that the thing you most suffer from, internally, you resist admitting the most strenuously. The level of intensity of denial is a perfect example of how profoundly everyone needs equity awareness, but especially those most opposed to it.
Fifty-one percent think nothing needs to be done? …Don’t they read the news? Where do they get their information?
Maybe they resist being told what to think. Maybe their personal experience tells them people just want to be treated equally, and left alone.
Or maybe they’re just miserable, disgusting, bigots. That would be MY personal experience, having grown up among their like.
Is this your perception only? Or do these “bigots” fit the dictionary definition?
Well I would think regular use of racial slurs, physical abuse of minority children unfortunate enough to be placed as foster children in our school, vandalism to minority housing (in that case a migrant worker community), and “unofficial” agreements amongst local real estate firms to not offer housing to “those people” would qualify, no? The joys of rural Wisconsin in the 80’s and 90’s.
I don’t think I’m exaggerating by saying most have had nothing like this experience. I personally have never heard a racial epithet directed at anyone. And that’s the most minor of your experiences, disgusting as it is.
It’s not I don’t believe you. But I would like to hear what others think. Have they experienced these things also? Or have I just lived a charmed life?
I hear racial epithets daily. Every, single, day. Not then, now. As I’ve stated previously, I don’t know you, or where or when you come from, but I get the sense you have lived if not a charmed, a somewhat limited, life. There’s a reason many of us feel so passionately about these issues and its not some sense of “white guilt” or “woke sensibility”. Its the result of a lifetime of observation and experience, both of the treatment of minority folks we care about, and the behavior of the white people that we interact with every day. The emotion is disgust, and neverending disappointment that people who should (and in most cases do) know better continually refuse to change, prolonging the existence of the absolute absurdity that is racism.
“I hear racial epithets daily.” Ouch. How are you responding? I would personally make sure it was the worst day of that person’s life.
It depends on the circumstance. As much as morality dictates one response, economic realities dictate others. We’ll leave it at that
Gee, I wonder what that might be, given the cohort?
“…when asked whether more needs to be done to overcome the legacy of racism, a slight majority of 51 percent of respondents said “little or nothing more needs to be done.” The problem with this survey is that what do they mean by “more needs to be done?” More what? More money than the 6 trillion that’s already been spent? More race-based laws that treat the races differently? The survey never defines what “more” means.
The statement “because they are fundamentally biased against some racial and ethnic groups, most U.S. laws and institutions need to be completely rebuilt,” comes across as a radical call for revolution of some sort, which most people would oppose and says more about the survey writers than anything else.
It’s instructive that 73% of democrats favored doing more without even knowing what that “more” is, while 7% of so-called conservatives endorsed “fundamental” change, without knowing what that is. And that’s the takeaway. It’s a bit useless to ask people if they think change is necessary without suggesting what that change would look like.
“It’s a bit useless to ask people if they think change is necessary without suggesting what that change would look like.”
I disagree. It is perfectly acceptable to know things can be better without knowing how to change them to get to a better state.
Perhaps that’s a difference between conservatives & progressives.
No, it is not useless to ask if change is needed. I can conclude that change is needed (and I do) without saying what form that change will take. That’s the next discussion we need to have.
“More what?” is indeed a good question to ask, but when half the population says no change is needed, in spite of events of the past year, we have a major problem.
Yeah, because maybe the “more what?” is more incarceration.
We can agree on that!
I’m looking forward to more guilty pleas and convictions from the Jan 6th terrorists, and of cops that muder civilians.
Though I do welcome convictions for all murderers, of course. But it seems that we hold police officers to a lower standard – and should rebuild public trust by instead holding cops to a higher standard.
And they wonder why I claim folks are calling for an endless police state and mass incarceration. Are you listening Mr. Terry? These the bedfellows you choose to keep?
“It’s a bit useless to ask people if they think change is necessary without suggesting what that change would look like.” Exactly.
Certainly one can always dispute the quality of the survey that gives up undesirable results, even if it is a product of Pew Charitable Trusts.
Mr. Tester suggests Pew isn’t “doing it right”.
I think everybody knows Pew Research does some of the most reliable, topically important surveys and samples of American’s views. I don’t think we could have many objective conversations at all if it were not for their work and that of our own government’s compilation and publishing of data we use every day.
Mr. Tester says “It’s instructive that 73% of democrats favored doing more without even knowing what that “more” is, while 7% of so-called conservatives endorsed “fundamental” change, without knowing what that is. And that’s the takeaway. ”
Whose “takeaway”? That one sounds like Bill Barr’s takeaway from the Mueller report.
The last paragraph of the report says more about the “takeaway”:
“Views among Republicans have largely remained unchanged over the last five years. A sizable majority of Republicans (73%) continue to say White people benefit only a little or not at all from advantages that Black people lack.”
(It did say 6% of the Rs now see some white privilege they hadn’t expressed seeing before.)
Republicans are white people who aren’t ashamed of being white people. As a non-white person I find that admirable.
The problem is that some of them incorporate an assumption of white superiority into their white pride.
“I’m ashamed to be a member of the human race.” –Jack Kerouac
It seems pretty plain to me that demographic changes in the U.S. over the past generation have 1) made the country more urban, and ethnically and politically diverse; and 2) produced a Republican Party that, as an institution, is increasingly devoted to what can only be described as “reaction” to those trends – to maintaining (or resurrecting) white privilege, especially in a rural context. Mitch McConnell doesn’t mind taking advantage of the racist tendencies of his Congressional colleagues himself, but he seems less focused on race per se, and more focused on gathering and keeping the political power necessary to continue his recent role as puppet-master in the Senate, regardless of the Senate’s (or the country’s) racial and ethnic makeup. Other Republican leaders, however, beginning with über-bigot Donald Trump and extending through Ted Cruz to Josh Hawley and Ron DeSantis in the Senate, and figures like Marjorie Taylor-Greene and Lauren Boebert in the House, have made very plain their intent and desire to see to it that the white establishment continues to control the nation’s politics and economy. They’re playing to the prejudiced in the balcony.
While it’s natural to want to hold on to power once it’s acquired, a continued refusal to acknowledge changes in the makeup of one’s own society, or to render those changes somehow irrelevant, is a sort of mental illness, not to mention that doing so sends a blatantly negative message about the value one places on at least some of one’s fellow-human beings and citizens. They should be ashamed, but a sense of shame is not a commonly-held principle among politicians, particularly at the state and national level, and even less so in the current iteration of the Republican Party, where it is largely absent.
The survey is terrible because it does not define what needs to be done.
Many in the GOP are highly suspicious of Government being able to do anything well except spend money and be manipulated by the shake down activist.
Of course we could just say we are in favor of “hope and change.”
“The survey is terrible because it does not define what needs to be done.”
The survey is not designed to define solutions. It is designed to assess public opinion. Some BLM activists use language about dismantling the whole system to address inherent systemic racism. The survey is asking: do you agree or disagree? They’re trying to allow for gray area – like “I agree systemic racism exists, but dismantling the system is too extreme” Vs some people apparently thinking “what racism?” Or “what about all the reverse discrimination?”
Well as always it depends on whose getting gored! Personally I think the term white privilege just turns a lot of folks off to the thought of fairness, might be better off saying already got it/made it privilege, which yes. tends to be predominantly white folks. The real issue is the tax laws, and other laws, attitudes, etc. of the past are skewed to help those that got it, get more, and those that don’t not get much or any. So for a lot of folks it seems to them its not racism, as much as poor folks just need to try harder, what they don’t realize, or even care about is, that for poor folks its an almost straight up slope, for the wealthy, well to do, or even not so well to do, it its by and large, down hill or at least reasonable flat or bumpy land to. So for those folks, they are thinking its not racism, its all about economic status, and they will clearly point out that they have diversity (folks that made it economically) in their neighborhood, probably amounts to < a couple percent, but that automatically shows they are tolerant and not racist people. And that word empathy always comes to mind, very little of it for folks they don't know, and very little desire to change from that course for their fellow Americans. So much for the "we the people" thing.
I find the thought of “let’s just change” without specifics to be totally devoid of any merit. To just “imagine change” sounds good (how did reimagine policing work out) but is not how adults bring about change. What are the biggest drivers of strained race relations? Some may say lack of opportunities, we installed affirmative action, did that Government mandate work? Some may say lack of education, we put more tax payer money into inner city schools than any place else and folks of color get preferred placement in college. How has that worked? Some may say lack of housing, food, transportation, the USA government has spent over 22TRILLION since 1965 on those remedies, how’s that worked.
Please have some idea as to what has been tried in the past so moving forward you can try something new…. Change for change sake is not a plan!
Come on Joe, the first question is what have you done to change? Or is that answer, you are perfectly happy with the way things are today? The point being, if you were a football team and you score a TD you get 12 points, when other folks do it they get 6! When things are biased in your favor, it all looks normal, you need to look beyond at how the US economic game is set up, if you do your own taxes etc. etc. etc. you will easily notice the biases towards the, they got it/and the laws that help them keep it and get more, reality is reality. Why aren’t there more minorities in rural America? Simple answer they know that those folks don’t want them there. We all need to ask the question are we one of those “all men are created equal” except for? It may be written but that doesn’t mean people believe in it, with all do respect, many of my in-laws, old friends from non-metro areas are only familiar, appreciate and recite 1 piece of the constitution and the BORs. That’s correct the 2nd Amendment, nothing else is important, nor are they interested. You know like, “promote…. the general welfare” what does that mean?
Oh for goodness sake. There have been numerous police reform bills which have been quite specific about actual changes to current law. Repubs in MN refused to enact most of them, while Repubs in DC (after throwing up a bad faith phony reform bill) then refused to compromise and add any provisions that Dems wanted. Their usual procedure for ensuring Do-Nothingism. So acting like “no one knows” what changes are being proposed is nonsense, and I’m not going to waste my time rehashing those debates.
White backlash on the race after mass protest is pretty much par for the course in American history, and it was wishful thinking to expect any actual reform or movement in this area after summer 2020. Most whites are very defensive about the Original Sin of America and white privilege, and that’s almost certainly baked into the cake. The new advocacy of rural minority faction rule by the “conservative” movement pretty much ends the story here.
“we cannot let any information out that”
Oh yeah, that’s really a problem these days compared to the old days when we had 3 TV networks, 1 daily newspaper and a few radio stations. It’s a lot harder to get out diverse opinion these days.
Well, some would point out that this is what happens when you watch a bunch of cops beat on a black guy for 15 minutes, acquit them, provoke a riot… and then do nothing but admire the problem for the nest 3 decades. Not only did we ignor the problem, but we militarized the police even more and made it worse. This is the very nature of bipartisan failure. The incremental/moderate/”centrist” habit of admiring crisis and problems for decades while hiding in a bubble of comfort can only make things worse. See: Housing prices, tuition prices, health care, sexism and harassment, Fascism, gun violence, mass murder, global warming and contaminated drinking water, education and segregation, failed attempts at nation building, etc. etc. for other examples.
It’s actually predictable that if you do nothing, or as little as possible… crises get worse… who’da thunk eh?
In some ways the US is actually an example of an affluent but nevertheless failed state. One feature of a successful nation is a capacity to recognize crises, and clear and present dangers, and organize effective responses. I can’t remember the last time the US actually managed to do that in my lifetime. From global warming to infrastructure and terrorist attacks we have clearly lost the capacity to recognize crises and cope with them. So do polls like this really surprise you? Did you need to see a poll like this?