Race relations better, but bias persists, poll finds

Jet, May 3, 2004

A majority of Americans support affirmative action, believe race relations have improved since the Civil Rights Movement and approve of interracial marriage, according to a new poll.

Still, 49 percent of Blacks said they had experienced some form of discrimination in the month preceding the poll and 62 percent believe they are treated somewhat or very unfairly.

The Gallup Organization poll, commissioned by the AARP and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), was released to coincide with the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling that declared school segregation unconstitutional. It appears in the May-June issue of AARP The Magazine. Gallup said the poll is the organization's most comprehensive survey on race relations.

In the poll of adults 18 and older, nearly 90 percent of Whites, 73 percent of Blacks and 76 percent of Hispanics said race relations had somewhat or greatly improved. Additionally, Americans of different races are increasingly comfortable living together: 78 percent of Blacks, 61 percent of Hispanics and 57 percent of Whites said they prefer to live in a mixed neighborhood.

Fifty-seven percent of Americans support affirmative action; however, 63 percent said that "race relations will always be a problem in the U.S."

According to Census Bureau projections, Whites, now about 69 percent of the population, will drop to 50.1 percent by 2050. More than a quarter of those surveyed said that will be a good thing. Fifty-six percent said it will not matter, and 13 percent said it will be a bad thing.

The telephone survey of 2,002 people, conducted between Nov. 11 and Dec. 14, had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.