Due to the recent and highly toxic political
discussions regarding race, politics and immigration; and
the inflammable comments by President Trump regarding his
disdain of people of color who criticize the American
government, we decided to track those sentiments with a new
survey.
Over a course of three weeks, our canvassers were able
to interview and screen (to weed out duplicate names and
those who were intoxicated or did not complete all the
proffered questions) 3,700 white ethnic persons.
Our survey was limited to white persons who were
American citizens and whose parents were not recent
immigrants.
Our goal was to find 12 issues that white Americans either
found fearful about minorities or issues that they wanted to
talk about but were reluctant to discuss in mixed raced
company.
The results that we obtained were both profound and
troubling since it present a snapshot of the United States
that is in the throes of finding its cultural identity which
is now being recast with significant minority populations
with whom they did not grow up with or do they know on a
personal basis.
We also were deeply troubled to gauge from our
extensive survey that many white Americans are operating
with either wholly incorrect information about people of
color, or they obtain their “facts” from biased sources
which have a political agenda to bring them into their
narrow ideologies.
So, with that in mind, here are the summations of our
findings about the current state of race relations in
America:
ONE:
Seventy-Two percent of White America is woefully and
sometimes willfully ignorant of American history when it
comes to the issues of slavery and its aftermath of Jim
Crow, civil rights, current residential and employment
biases and white institutional creation and support of
discrimination. They are in denial of their history
regarding America’s, “original sin.”
TWO:
Sixty-Two percent of White America resent a national holiday
for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and do not understand
February being designated Black History Month. The thought
of the black freedom fighter Harriet Tubman being placed on
the 20-dollar bill causes many to wonder what is happening
to “their” America.
THREE:
Although they constantly see media images of inter-racial
marriages, 70 percent say they are not in favor of their
child (especially their daughters) marrying outside of their
“race.” The thought of being grandparents to “butterscotch”
children and having those children at family reunions, gives
them grave concerns.
FOUR:
Fifty-one percent believe that too much publicity is given
to police shootings of black males, because the victims
probably “deserved” what happened to them despite evidence
many times to the contrary.
FIVE:
Eighty-two percent believe that “black on black” crime
affirms their primary fears of associating with black people
since it portrays the image that all black people are short
tempered and inherently violent.
SIX:
The thought of reparations
causes 94 percent of White America to have outright disgust
because they believe that slavery is over and done with; and
that everyone should pull their own weight and not ask for
handouts for what happened to their ancestors so long ago.
SEVEN:
Forty-eight percent are perfectly OK with Trump’s remarks
about black athletes being called SOB’s when they took a
knee during the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner before
an athletic contest.
EIGHT:
Thirty-nine percent think
that the idea of having next door neighbors being Hispanics
or African Americans would cause them to move out of the
neighborhood due to their belief that their hard-earned
property values would plummet even though the evidence says
otherwise.
NINE:
Eighty-eight percent of
white Americans are content when they worship on Sundays
apart from any persons of color because of what they see
as,” their unique style of worship and preaching.”
Translated: They do not want to be talked about from the
pulpit in a black church.
TEN:
Almost nine out of 10 persons who were surveyed did not have
any person of color as an acquaintance or a friend that they
could visit or talk with at least once a week. Practically
none have ever visited a black home for a meal, nor have
they been to a black church or to a black theatrical play.
ELEVEN:
A bare four percent of the respondents have ever read a book
by a minority author and could not identify people such as
John Coltrane, Toni Morrison, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey,
Thurgood Marshall, Lionel Hampton, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou
Hamer, W.E.B DuBois or could name two predominately black
colleges.
TWELVE:
Only a fraction of one percent would want to change places
with a black person and experience “black life” for ninety
days as being a slave in the South or as a sharecropper in
Mississippi during the 1930’s.
Our survey results indicate that the social and
cultural chasm between white and black America is not
closing but ever widening.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com
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