In the latest round of âstudies confirming stuff we already knew,â newly released opinion-poll data from the University of Chicagoâs National Opinion Research Center shows that people who identify as Republican are more likely to believe that blacks are less motivated and less intelligent than whites. The survey results also reveal that more Republicans believe that African Americans get preferential employment treatment over more-qualified whites.
For more than four decades, the General Social Survey has studied the complex questions of American society; it is the âonly full-probability, personal-interview survey designed to monitor changes in both social characteristics and attitudes currently being conducted in the United States.â
The Washington Post reviewed the surveyâs 2016 data and learned some not-so-surprising facts about the differences in how the different parties view race in America. The poll asked, âOn average, blacks have worse jobs, income and housing than white people. Do you think those differences are because most just donât have the motivation or willpower to pull themselves up out of poverty?â
Fifty-five percent of white Republicans agreed with this statement, while 26 percent of white Democrats believed it to be true. While the difference in opinion was striking, the results were almost the same when researchers asked the question in 2010, when 60 percent of white GOPers agreed, compared with 32 percent of white Dems.
When asked about work ethic, the number of Republicans who believe blacks are lazier almost doubled the number of Democrats, 42 percent versus 24 percent, respectively, reflecting the second-biggest gap in the pollâs history. Years ago, when peopleâs attitudes about race were different, 28 percent of white Democrats believed the statement to be true, compared with 47 percent of white Republicans. However, that was way back in the dark ages of race relationsâ2010.
According to the survey, more than a quarter (26 percent) of the Grand Old Partyâs members think blacks are less intelligent than whites. Although this statistic seems outdated, it is a vast improvement from 1996, when more than 38 percent of Republicans and Democrats held this opinion. When it comes to interracial relationships, 26 percent of the people in the party of Lincoln were against the idea, compared with 12 percent of Dems.
This study not only highlights the differences between how members of different political parties view race and inequality in America but also offers insight into the support behind the GOP political agenda. It is easy to dismantle health care for the uninsured and defund social programs when the members of your party believe that the reason for economic inequality is that blacks just arenât working as hard. Why not demonize diversity and leveling the playing fields when your constituents believe that barely literate black people are benefiting from affirmative action?
For conservatives, facts like climate change research, the math of trickle-down economics, and birth certificates donât matter. They donât care about the numbers showing that whites earn more money than better-educated blacks at every level. They choose to ignore the statistics showing that more unemployed African Americans search for work than do their jobless white counterparts. When Republicans hear that job applicants with âblack-sounding namesâ get fewer callbacks, apparently they donât believe it.
Upon hearing the results of the survey, black America collectively gave a Kanye shrug, muttered, âThat seems about right,â and continued about their business. Meanwhile, the National Opinion Research Center hasnât yet released the results of its poll that definitively prove that most Americans think water is wet.
