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Poll finds stereotypes, resentment are mutual
By Lesley Clark
McClatchy Newspapers
Published on Thursday, Dec 13, 2007
WASHINGTON: The nation's three largest minority groups — blacks, Hispanics and Asians — view one another with deep suspicion, though there's evidence that the divide could be bridged, a new poll finds.
Billed as the first of its kind, the nationwide poll of 1,105 blacks, Hispanics and Asians found that all three groups held negative stereotypes of one another — though in some cases, a majority or nearly as many respondents rejected such beliefs.
Pollster Sergio Bendixen said the mixed results ''reflect the extent to which the poll is capturing not a static picture, but a racial landscape in flux.''
The poll, conducted in August and September, was sponsored by New America Media, an association of more than 700 ethnic media outlets. It follows an uproar over a San Francisco Asian weekly's decision in February to publish a column titled, ''Why I Hate Blacks.''
The ensuing furor sparked a community forum and a decision to try to better understand the tension among the largest ethnic groups in the United States, said Sandy Close, executive editor and director of NAM.
''It's a small opening in an otherwise convoluted, complicated landscape of 'Can we all get along?' '' Close said of the poll. ''We see this information as better to know — and discuss — than not to know.''
The poll found that friction among ethnic and racial groups is ''rooted in the mistrust that the groups harbor towards each other,'' as well as a belief that the other groups are ''mistreating them or are detrimental to their own future.''
More than seven in 10 respondents consider ''racial tension'' to be an important problem, and many subscribe to racial or ethnic stereotypes that Bendixen said he discovered in earlier focus groups.
For example, the poll found that 44 percent of Hispanics and 47 percent of Asians said they're ''generally afraid of African-Americans because they are responsible for most of the crime.''
Bendixen noted that half of Hispanics rejected the statement, as did 45 percent of Asians.
The poll also found that just more than half of blacks feel threatened by Hispanic immigrants, agreeing with the statement that ''they are taking jobs, housing and political power away from the black community.'' But 45 percent disagreed. Only 34 percent of Asians believe Hispanics are displacing blacks.
But majorities of Hispanics and blacks believe that ''most Asian business owners do not treat them with respect.''
Moreover, the three groups appear more trusting of whites than of one another, with majorities in each group saying they felt ''more comfortable doing business'' with whites than with any of the other minority groups.
The poll showed high levels of ''ethnic isolation'' among the groups, with a majority of each group reporting that most of their friends, neighbors and people they associate with are of the same ethnic background.
WASHINGTON: The nation's three largest minority groups — blacks, Hispanics and Asians — view one another with deep suspicion, though there's evidence that the divide could be bridged, a new poll finds.
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