Daily Research News Online no. 2459 - Improving Views of Race Relations in the US

Improving Views of Race Relations in the US

July 3 2003

Americans feel slightly more positive about race relations in their country than they did in previous years, according to The Gallup Minority Relations poll, conducted in June. Large majorities of Americans believe that relations among the races and ethnic groups are good. In most cases, results are fairly similar regardless of which group is being surveyed.

Relations between four pairings were considered: whites and blacks, whites and Hispanics, whites and Asians, and blacks and Hispanics. White-Asian relations are viewed most positively and black-Hispanic relations viewed least positively.

Sixty-eight per cent of Americans rate relations between blacks and whites as good, while 30% say they are bad. Blacks are less likely (59%) to feel that relations are good. The proportion feeling that relations between whites and Asians are good has risen by 5% since 2002, to 82%.

Black-Hispanic relations receive the lowest ratings of the four pairs assessed, with 60% of Americans thinking they are good, but among the two groups themselves ratings are more encouraging: blacks (72%) and Hispanics (71%) give quite positive ratings and it is whites (55%) who view black-Hispanic relations more negatively. The 60% itself represents a steep rise from 49% in 2001, the first year the Minority Relations poll was conducted, and 53% in 2002.

Would you say relations between these groups are...?

	Whites and Blacks	Whites and Hispanics	Whites and Asians	Blacks and Hispanics
	%	%	%	%
Very/somewhat good	68	73	82	60
Very/somewhat bad	30	24	13	30
No opinion	2	3	5	10

Americans are more likely to believe that blacks dislike whites than vice versa. Fifty-two per cent say only a few black people dislike whites while 44% say 'many' or 'almost all' blacks feel this way.

According to Gallup, the current results among whites are considerably more positive than in the early to mid-1990s, around the time of the 1992 Los Angeles race riots and the 1995 O.J. Simpson verdict, when a majority of whites thought many or almost all blacks disliked whites, and just 37% believed that few blacks disliked whites. Black opinion during those times was generally similar to what it is today.

The poll also asked blacks and Hispanics how often they 'feel discriminated against in public life or employment' because of their race or ethnicity. Hispanics seldom feel there is a problem - 41% say they never feel discriminated against, and only a fifth say they feel this more than a few times a year.

Blacks are much more likely to report feeling discriminated against. Twenty-six percent of blacks say they feel discriminated against on a weekly or daily basis and only 19% of blacks say they never feel discriminated against.

Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,385 Americans aged 18+ conducted June 12-18, 2003. Blacks and Hispanics were oversampled and the numbers weighted to reflect their proportions in the general population.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.