Langton: Are Black Americans More Racist Than Whites?
DETROIT (CBS Detroit) According to a new Rasmussen survey, 37 percent of Americans believe blacks are more racist than whites.
In fact, the survey concluded that just 15 percent believe white Americans are more racist.
"Now there's a ton of criticism regarding the survey," WWJ legal analyst Charlie Langton said.
He added it was a telephone survey of just 1,000 respondents.
Responses were sharply divided among political lines, with people who identified themselves as a Republican or Democrat offering vastly different opinions -- 49 percent of Republicans said "most" black Americans are racist, compared to 29 percent of Democrats.
Additionally, attitudes about race in America seemed to become more pessimistic.
Overall, just 30 percent of Americans rated race relations in the United States as good or excellent, and 14 percent describe them as poor. Twenty-nine percent think race relations are getting better, while 32 percent believe they are getting worse and 35 percent feel they are staying about the same.
"These figures reflect more pessimism than was found in April when 42 percent gave race relations positive marks and 39 percent said race relations were improving," study authors found.
The author added the April study number reflected all-time highs while the current numbers are back to being more consistent with the general attitudes of recent years.
"How one defines racist is speculative, and some say Rasmussen is too conservative," Langton said, adding, "But the results are troubling."
Click here to see the entire survey, including the exact questions that were asked.
