NEWSMAX / AP: … Racial prejudice has increased slightly since 2008 whether those feelings were measured using questions that explicitly asked respondents about racist attitudes, or through an experimental test that measured implicit views toward race without asking questions about that topic directly.
In all, 51 percent of Americans now express explicit anti-black attitudes, compared with 48 percent in a similar 2008 survey. When measured by an implicit racial attitudes test, the number of Americans with anti-black sentiments jumped to 56 percent, up from 49 percent during the last presidential election. In both tests, the share of Americans expressing pro-black attitudes fell.
“As much as we’d hope the impact of race would decline over time … it appears the impact of anti-black sentiment on voting is about the same as it was four years ago,” said Jon Krosnick, a Stanford University professor who worked with AP to develop the survey… (more)
EDITOR: We spent Saturday night in an upscale Philadelphia hotel were most of the employees and guests were African-Americans. My initial instinct was to be uncomfortable, although the guests were no different than the Caucasians I normally encounter except somewhat more friendly and respectful to the elderly. This reminded me that, like others of my generation, I am a ‘racist in recovery.’
Many of the grandmothers of the diners at the Hilton restaurant were maids in nearby suburban homes, used buses for transportation, lived in converted flats in dilapidated inner city row houses and paid their rent by the week, when they could. Their children and grandchildren were now assimilated into business, the professions, government and, marvel of marvels, are the tenants in the White House.
A black family of twelve was having a gathering in the glassed off private room that our table adjoined. As their children scurried about, I marveled (and rejoiced) over the changes that I have lived to witness.
