Different Race More Acceptable Than Atheism

The Pew Research Center has released a new survey on racial attitudes in America. The survey was done between 10/28/09 and 11/30/09 and involved 2,884 adults (including 812 African-Americans). It has a margin of error of 3.0.

The survey involved many aspects of racial attitudes, and I urge you to go read the whole thing. I am just going to talk about a couple of things I found interesting -- does more need to be done and marriage to a person of a different race. The first shows wide disagreement and the second shows growing acceptance.

The survey divided respondents into three groups -- Whites, Blacks and Hispanics. When asked whether enough had been done to help Blacks achieve equal rights with Whites, the three groups had widely varying attitudes. Here are the numbers:

WHITES

Enough has been done.....54%

More needs to be done.....36%

BLACKS

Enough has been done.....13%

More needs to be done.....81%

HISPANICS

Enough has been done.....42%

More needs to be done.....47%

I have to admit I'm a little embarrassed that only 36% of Whites think more needs to be done, especially in light of the rabid racism that has surfaced since President Obama was elected. I think a lot of people are sort of hiding their heads in the sand and not wanting to admit that their is still a lot of racism in this country. I think it's obvious that much more needs to be done.

But at the same time, I think the chart above (taken from the survey) shows there has been some progress. A clear majority of all three groups would not mind at all if a family member married outside their race or ethnicity. You wouldn't need to go back too many years to find a majority opposed to this (especially among Whites).

But while progress has been made, the figures show it is still Whites that are dragging their feet in accepting equality. Only 64% of Whites would be fine with a family member marrying a Black and 6% would not accept it at all. While 80% of Blacks would be fine with a family member marrying a White and only 3% could not accept it.

The difference between Whites and Hispanics is similar to that between Whites and Blacks. About 71% of Whites would be fine with a family member marrying a Hispanic and 4% could not accept it at all. While 81% of Hispanics would be fine with a family member marrying a White and only 2% adamantly opposed.

While all groups could do better, a larger percentage of Whites need to show improvement than either of the other two groups. But there is another group that has even less acceptance than even race, and this group was unacceptable to large numbers of all three groups. That groups is people who don't believe in god (atheists). Here are the numbers when the survey asked about a family member marrying an atheist:

ALL GROUPS

Would be fine with it.....34%

Bothered but accept it.....38%

Could not accept it.....24%

WHITES

Would be fine with it.....33%

Bothered but accept it.....40%

Could not accept it.....23%

BLACKS

Would be fine with it.....25%

Bothered but accept it.....36%

Could not accept it.....36%

HISPANICS

Would be fine with it.....42%

Bothered but accept it.....36%

Could not accept it.....20%

As an atheist, I find those figures a little scary. While Americans seem to be making some progress with racial bigotry, religious bigotry is still going strong. Are atheists, along with homosexuals, the new people it's OK to discriminate against?