The percentage of Americans naming race relations or racism as the most important problem facing the country increased to 9% this month, up from 3% in June. Mentions of race relations as a top problem have risen and fallen multiple times over the past seven months as racially charged events […] Read more »
An opportunity gamed away
… It is a downbeat reality for a region that for much of the second half of the 20th century was actually closing its gap with the rest of the country, helped by the federal war on poverty and the end of legalized segregation. But during the past 15 years […] Read more »
28% of whites say they favor a law allowing homeowners to discriminate
When the Fair Housing Act first came into effect in the late 1960s and early ’70s, a substantial share of white Americans supported the kind of discrimination the landmark law made illegal. They believed that whites had a right to keep blacks out of their neighborhoods. They said in surveys […] Read more »
Democrats increasingly think the Confederate flag is racist. Republicans don’t.
… Mass politics has become more polarized by racial attitudes because of Barack Obama’s rise. As I show, the election of President Obama helped usher not a post-racial but a “most-racial” political era. Racially liberal and racially conservative Americans are now more divided over a host of political positions — […] Read more »
Democrats’ Views on Confederate Flag Increasingly Negative
As South Carolina officials prepare to vote to remove the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds, a diminished majority of Americans, 54%, down from 59% in 2000 and 69% in 1992, now view the Confederate flag as “a symbol of Southern pride” rather than “a symbol of racism.” Democrats’ […] Read more »
2015 State of the First Amendment Survey
The State of the First Amendment survey, conducted each year since 1997 by the Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center, tests Americans’ knowledge of their core freedoms and samples their opinions on First Amendment issues of the day. The 2015 survey questions covered topics including the use of Confederate flags on […] Read more »