America’s race problem

According to a new CNN poll about half of black respondents said they had been a victim of discrimination because of their race. A little more than a quarter of whites said they had been victims of racial discrimination.

CNN just released a very interesting poll regarding racism in the United States.  Overall, according to the poll just one in eight people consider themselves a racist.  Below are snippets of the story with the statistics that were found.

Almost half of black respondents to the poll — 49 percent — said racism is a "very serious" problem, while 18 percent of whites shared that view. Forty-eight percent of whites and 35 percent of blacks chose the description "somewhat serious."

 

Asked if they know someone they consider racist, 43 percent of whites and 48 percent of blacks said yes.

But just 13 percent of whites and 12 percent of blacks consider themselves racially biased.

Professor Jack Dovidio of the University of Connecticut, who has researched racism for more than 30 years, estimates up to 80 percent of white Americans have racist feelings they may not even recognize.

"We've reached a point that racism is like a virus that has mutated into a new form that we don't recognize," Dovidio said.

He added that 21st-century racism is different from that of the past.

"Contemporary racism is not conscious, and it is not accompanied by dislike, so it gets expressed in indirect, subtle ways," he said.

That "stealth" discrimination reveals itself in many different situations.

A three-year undercover investigation by the National Fair Housing Alliance found that real estate agents steered whites away from integrated neighborhoods and steered blacks in to predominantly black neighborhoods.

Snip…

Candidates named Emily O'Brien or Neil McCarthy were much more likely to get calls back from potential employers than applicants named Tamika Williams and Jamal Jackson, even though they had the same credentials, according to a study by the University of Chicago.

Snip…

Asked how many whites dislike blacks, 40 percent of black respondents said "all" or "many." Twenty-six percent of whites chose one of those replies.

On the question of how many blacks dislike whites, 33 percent of blacks said "all" or "many," while 38 percent of whites agreed — a wash because of the poll's 5 percent margin of error.

About half of black respondents said they had been a victim of discrimination because of their race. A little more than a quarter of whites said they had been victims of racial discrimination. 

While racism may not be as overwhelmingly apparent like it was during and prior to the Civil Rights movement it should still be on our hearts and minds as problem in our nation.  Studies sited in the story above show that blacks are more likely to be steered towards neighborhoods that are predominately black, while whites are likely to be steered towards neighborhoods that are more integrated.  Our nation still has a lot of inroads to make when it comes to systemic and institutionalized racism.

We need to look into our hearts and minds to figure out what we need to work on.  We need to figure it them out, say a prayer and work on changing our own prejuidices.