Tag: Racial discrimination

Racial inequality: Peeling the onion

It is unsurprising that Republicans are far less likely than Democrats to believe that Blacks experience racial discrimination on every dimension surveyed… but the contrast in partisan perceptions is truly staggering.

Reality seen through a fractured lens

Democrats are 4 times more likely than Republicans to believe that Blacks experience racial discrimination in employment.   The data suggests that the more than 1 in 3 Republicans who deny employment discrimination believe that affirmative action has actually given Blacks an unfair advantage.

It is of note, however, that – perhaps as a result of the BLM movement – the partisan gap is significantly narrower on the issues of discrimination within “the criminal justice system” and “dealing with police”.

Republicans, however, exhibit their greatest denial of discrimination on the issues of “healthcare” and “voting rights”.

Blaming the victims

When it comes to the causes of racial inequality, Democrats assign greater weight than Republicans to external factors including the influence of access to good schools and jobs, and systemic discrimination.

Republicans are far more likely to blame the victims, attaching far greater significance to family instability, lack of good role models, and laziness.

An atmosphere of bigotry

Ever since Trump was elected in 2016, both Blacks and Republicans have believed that the expression of racist views is both both more common and more widely accepted.

Government action

It has been as long documented that awareness of racial inequality increases with education as it has been that American education has been faltering.

In fact, a voter with a high school education or less is twice as likely as a college graduate to believe that government has done too much to address racial inequality, a view shared by:

  • 1 in 5 of those aged 65+
  • 1 in 4 of those aged 50-64

In stark contrast – and on a hopeful note for the future – those 18-29 years of age believe that that government is doing too little by a staggering 5-to-1!

NOTE: All data presented in this post was generated by Pew Research.

Racial stereotyping and prejudice are proving far more deeply rooted and resilient than many imagined.  It is a cancer that will only grow without elected representatives who will stand up to reactionaries for the protection of equal rights.

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Inequality by the numbers

More than one hundred fifty years have passed since after passage of the 15th amendment and over 50 years since passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and it is painfully obvious that America cannot simply legislate its way out of racial discrimination.

Three in five Americans believe that Blacks still remain the most frequent victims of racial discrimination.

The numbers suggest that even this perception understates the reality. Median income for Blacks is 58% of median income for Whites and 20% lower for Blacks than for Hispanics.

Unemployment among Blacks is nearly 20% higher than for Whites.

Abortion bans deny all women the opportunity to plan families, and the marked decrease in abortion-related deaths among Black women while Roe v. Wade was law makes it clear that abortion bans disproportionately impact Black women. Before Roe v. Wade, women who died as the result of illegal abortions were typically Black, and had self-induced in their own communities.

Blacks are 2.3 times as likely to be shot by a police officer as Whites.

A monumental amount of work still remains to realize the dream… and there is an opportunity to jump-start the effort by electing a like-minded Congress in November.

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