Blacks Less Hardworking, Intelligent, Trustworthy

I know I post about racism a lot. I do think it is a very minor factor in modern society, but I think we take too much comfort in the false idea that it has been sufficiently eliminated or stigmatized.

I frequently encounter whites who harbor prejudices against racial minorities but would certainly befriend, hire, or vote for individual blacks as long as that black person does not exhibit the characteristics found in the racial stereotypes. Many even take a certain pride in their racial open-mindedness when they find an acceptable black individual. Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, and Bill Cosby are a few of the more famous blacks that have distinguished themselves from their race. I think Obama has the potential to do this (the frequent talk about personal responsibility is key).

That is the reason why I don't consider race to be a major factor in the success of African Americans despite these poll results referenced in the title above:

Respondents were given “a seven-point scale on which the characteristics of the people in a group can be rated.” Whites, blacks, Hispanic-Americans and Asian-Americans were to be rated in terms of how hardworking, intelligent, and trustworthy they are. Any score of 1, 2 or 3 means the respondent thinks - more or less - that most members of the various groups are hardworking, intelligent, and trustworthy. Here are the results (in terms of the percentage of respondents saying 1, 2, or 3) for whites, blacks, and Hispanics:

Hardworking
Whites - 53.9%
Blacks - 28.1%
Hispanics - 48.5%

Intelligent
Whites - 58.3%
Blacks - 35.4%
Hispanics - 33.5%

Trustworthy
Whites - 49.2%
Blacks - 29.6%
Hispanics - 32.3%

One interesting result that you see if you follow the link is that blacks are slightly inclined to say that blacks are less hardworking and intelligent than whites.

While whites are readily prepared to distinguish individual blacks from the stereotypes, it's hard to imagine that these prejudices don't have some effect on blacks in our society.

I also think that a large amount of the hostility to social welfare programs is tied to the idea that blacks receive a disproportionate amount of the benefits and that they receive the benefits because of the characteristics in the stereotypes. This chart from the book Why Americans Hate Welfare (p. 69), using the same scale as the poll linked to above, shows that support for welfare spending decreases the more a respondent views blacks as lazy: