Who's Most Likely to Date Other Races? New Poll Tells All
By Jennifer Millman. Date Posted: December 13, 2007
The nation's first multilingual poll affirms the optimism of immigrants, tells you which groups are most likely to be in interracial relationships, and shows that while racial/ethnic tensions are perceived to be a serious problem, each group wants to put aside their differences. New America Media's latest poll has all the answers.
Click here to download the full details from New America Media. The telephone survey of more than 1,000 black, Asian-American and Latino adults was conducted during August and September 2007. Whites were not studied separately.
Click here to download a PowerPoint presentation of the top-line findings.
Here are six highlights from the New America Media poll:
1. Who's most optimistic about life in the United States?
Immigrants, especially Latinos. Prior research suggests immigrants are more optimistic about the future than native-born Americans, and this poll also finds that the newer you are to this country, the more optimistic you are about its ideals. More than half of Latinos and 80 percent of Asians polled, for example, are immigrants, compared with only 10 percent of blacks polled. They're also more likely to believe they can achieve the American dream, despite the odds. For example:
· Nearly 60 percent of Latinos "strongly agree" that every American, regardless of race/ethnicity or socioeconomic background, has an equal opportunity to succeed in this country, compared with 43 percent of Asians and only 30 percent of blacks. Strong belief in this notion is most evident among Vietnamese and Filipino Americans as an Asian subgroup (61 percent and 54 percent, respectively)
· Seventy-three percent of Latinos believe that hard work leads to success in this country, compared with 64 percent of Asians and only 44 percent of blacks. Among Asians, Vietnamese and Filipino individuals are the most likely to agree with this statement
Read the September 2007 issue of DiversityInc magazine to learn all about the business case for immigration and how immigrants' optimism is reshaping our country. (See also: Is Shopping While Latino as Bad as Shopping While Black?)
2. Who thinks whites are the best business partners?
Latinos (61 percent) are more likely than blacks (47 percent) or Asians (54 percent) to prefer doing business with whites as opposed to members of either of the two other underrepresented racial/ethnic groups polled. More than a third of poll participants in each group say they have no preference, but blacks prefer to do business with Latinos over Asians; Asians prefer Latinos over black business partners; and Latinos by a small margin prefer Asian partners over blacks
(See also: What Would Make White People Support a Black Business?)
3. Who does the most interracial dating? Who's the most segregated?
Blacks are most likely to date people of other races/ethnicities (39 percent), but members of each group that have engaged in interracial dating are all more likely to date whites than anyone else not in their own group. Why aren't there more interracial couples? It's partly because of lacking exposure to different groups in early education. School segregation is now at a 40-year high. What's the impact?
- Seventy-three percent of Latinos say most of their friends are of the same race/ethnicity as they are, compared with 67 percent of blacks and 58 percent of Asians, who are most likely to affiliate with racial/ethnic groups outside their own
- Segregation starts at the school level. Seventy percent of Latinos say they went to school with people mostly of their same race/ethnicity, compared with 64 percent of blacks and 25 percent of Asian respondents
(See also: Earn Up to $180,000 a Year? Now Harvard Is Affordable for Your Kid and Affirmative Action News: Why Race Still Counts in School Desegregation)
- Blacks are most likely to have dated whites (19 percent) and Latinos (15 percent). Latinos are more likely to have dated whites (16 percent) than blacks or Asians, but most remain within their own (72 percent). More than 20 percent of Asians have dated whites; 6 percent have dated Latinos and an equal amount compared with Latinos stay within their own group
(See also: Which Races Intermarry Most? 40th Anniversary of Loving Case)
4. Who's most concerned about racial/ethnic tensions?
Blacks are more likely than Latinos and Asians to feel threatened by other underrepresented groups in the job market, politics, housing and as store patrons. More than 90 percent of blacks perceive significant discrimination against their community--a higher percentage than either Latinos or Asians--and they're also most likely to report low faith in the criminal-justice system, which isn't surprising considering media emphasis on the disproportionate prison rates within their community. Also:
- Fifty-two percent of blacks and 44 percent of Latinos say "most Asian business owners do not treat them with respect"
- Half of blacks feel Latino immigrants are "taking jobs, housing and political power away from the black community"
- Latinos (93 percent) are nearly equally as likely as blacks (92 percent) to see racial tension in this country as a serious problem. Nearly three quarters of Asians agree, but broken down by subgroup, Koreans take this issue most seriously (81 percent) compared with Vietnamese and Filipino (74 percent each) and Chinese (65 percent) of poll participants
- Forty-four percent of Latinos and 47 percent of Asians generally fear blacks "because they are responsible for most of the crime." The good news is that nearly half of poll participants in each of these racial/ethnic groups disagrees with that statement, so there's a polarization of attitudes
Check out DiversityInc's Jena 6coverage and our exclusive national Noose Watch to learn what fuels heightened awareness among blacks of racial/ethnic tensions. (See also: John Edwards: 'Can't Build Enough Jails' for Black Youths?)
5. Which group most respects other groups' contributions?
Latinos and Asians both recognize that blacks paved the way in the struggle for civil rights. In turn, blacks acknowledge the impact immigrants and their cultures have had on society. Specifically:
· Sixty-seven percent of Asians and 58 percent of blacks say that Latinos and their culture--food, music, family values and traditions--have enriched the quality of life of all Americans
· More than 70 percent of Latinos agree that blacks have advanced everyone by leading the civil-rights charge and fighting discrimination for the last four decades; 65 percent of Asian Americans say the same
6. Who's most optimistic about the future of race relations?
Sixty-eight percent of blacks say race relations will improve over the next 10 years, compared with 62 percent and 61 percent of Asians and Latinos, respectively. At the same time, Latinos place the most emphasis on bringing different racial/ethnic groups together to enact change.
- More than 90 percent of Latinos say their community, the black community and the Asian community should put aside their differences and align forces to improve their communities; 85 percent of blacks and Asians agree
- Blacks are most likely to say the United States would be a better country if there were more blacks, Latinos and Asians leading businesses, universities, media and government
How do you think things would things be different if more women and people of color headed up Fortune 500 companies? Click here to tell us what you think. (See also: Why Are So Few CEOs People of Color and Women?)
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