Poll: Americans Believe that Prejudice is Alive and Well in the U.S

In a new poll conducted by Zogby International, analysts found that a large segment of the American population believes that prejudice and racism is still widely prevalent in the United States.

The survey included the responses of 10,387 American adults in a broad-in-scope evaluation concerning issues about race, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender, physical appearance, and political views.

As per the press release, John Zogby stated that Americans tend to be politically correct when they are asked about their views on race and prejudice. Hence, they decided to take a novel approach of asking individuals what they thought "most Americans" would think about these issues. The Zogby analysts believed that this would evoke a more honest response from participants regarding a controversial topic since they are not divulging opinions about their own beliefs, but rather, about the perceptions of their neighbor's views.

With respect to issue of race, more than two-thirds (67%) of Americans said that they would not have any preference with respect to a convenience store clerk being of white, black or of Arab descent. However, almost three-quarters (71%) stated that "most Americans" would try to seek out a white clerk. One percent of respondents stated that American's first choice would be to find a black clerk with 0.5% of the respondents saying that Americans would look for an Arab clerk.

When asked specifically about the topic of race, more than half or Americans (55%) stated that they believed that race relations have improved over the course of the last 10 years.

Respondents where also asked to select the race-background of an individual involved in a specific event or scenario according to current American perceptions. The respondents could select any ethnicity or race.

In this context, when asked about an event involving a shooting, almost three-quarters (73%) of respondents said that most Americans would expect that an African American person would be involved. In the event of a drug bust, over half of respondents (55%) replied that most Americans would expect an African American to be involved.

When questioned about the background of an individual involved in identity theft, more than half (53%) of survey participants said that they believed that most Americans would expect to see a white person involved. With regard to insurance fraud, 7 out of 10 respondents stated that Americans would expect to see white individuals involved.

Participants were also prompted to answer questions regarding race and the American political system. When presented with the question of which political party Americans think is responsible for wars, 62% of respondents said that Republicans would be blamed with 10% stating that Americans would blame the Democrats.

In the same context, more than half (56%) of respondents stated that Americans would blame global warming on Republicans with 10% of participants stating that Americans would think that the Democrats are responsible.

About half of respondents (47 to 52%) also replied that Americans would be more likely to blame the Republicans on issues of prejudice, poverty, and corruption. About one-quarter to one-third of participants (22-31%) said that Americans would hold the Democrats accountable on these issues.

Interestingly, 42% of respondents stated that Americans would more likely blame the Democrats than the Republicans (23%) on the issue of crime.

With respect to religion, 83% of participants conveyed that they believed Americans would be more likely to think that Muslims engage in terrorism. In a related question, 42% of Americans stated that they would be most concerned if their own child dated a Muslim. Seventeen percent replied that they would be concerned if their child dated an atheist with 17% saying that they would be concerned if the individual dating their child was a Mormon.

More thank one third (37%) of respondents said that American would believe that Catholics would be more likely to be involved in sexual abuse, more so than any other religious group.

The Zogby analysts added that they had almost no examples of respondents thinking that Americans had any negative views of Jews.

Almost two-thirds (62%) of participants stated that they believed that Americans oppose same-sex marriages. In a contradicting mode, almost 6 of 10 (58%) respondents stated that Americans would elect a gay person for President. In the same context, 57% said that Americans would elect an Arab-American with 51% saying that Americans would elect a President that was an atheist.

With respect to disability, more than one-quarter (26%) of respondents stated Americans would least want to work with someone who is morbidly obese. Less than one-quarter (22%), said that Americans would not like to work with someone with a facial disfigurement with 3% and 1% stating that their fellow citizens would not like to work with someone who is deaf or blind, respectively.

The poll was conducted under the auspices of GSN, a cable and satellite television network, as a prologue to the Without Prejudice Project. Their intent was to gain insight concerning prejudice in the U.S. to raise awareness about the subject of intolerance and also to bring attention to their new television series, "Without Prejudice?"

The margin of error for the poll is 1 percentage point.

Sources:

Zogby International: http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1341