Race Relations in America Are Better Than Ever

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Source: Wall Street Journal (behind paywall).

My personal experience — having lived in Virginia for more than half a century — is that outright racism that once was common now is almost non-existant. A new report by political scientist Eric Kaufmann of the Manhattan Institute appears to support the observation.

You wouldn’t know it from recent headlines, but there’s good news about race in the U.S. today.

…

Using survey data, Mr. Kaufmann notes that racial attitudes have been trending toward more tolerance for well over half a century…

According to Mr. Kaufmann, “at a time when measures of racist attitudes and behavior have never been more positive, pessimism about racism and race relations has increased in America.” Terms like “systemic racism” and “unconscious bias” are increasingly common, but white racist views have been in steady decline, whether with regard to having black co-workers, classmates or neighbors.

Intermarriage trend lines also undermine the notion that racial bigotry in America is a growing problem. “Approval of black-white intermarriage rose among whites from around 4% in 1958 to 45% in 1995 and 84% in 2013,” Mr. Kaufmann writes. “In 2017, fewer than 10% of whites in a major Pew survey said that interracial marriage was a ‘bad thing,’ ” and the “actual share of intermarried newlyweds rose from 3% in 1967 to 17% in 2015.” In fact, intermarriages involving Asians, Hispanics and Jews have all risen sharply over the decades, yet progressive intellectuals want to lecture the rest of us on how to be “antiracist.”

The concept of systemic racism holds that our institutions treat minorities unfairly, regardless of the individuals who work in or populate them. It is a real puzzle to contemplate how this could be when interpersonal race relations are so much improved.

Published by John Todd Roberts

Published

37 thoughts on “Race Relations in America Are Better Than Ever”

  2. I think the overall import of this story is correct. Race relations are much better than in the past, especially among younger people. The Petty Apartheid of my youth in the South is almost all gone. No more shotguns at polling places. No more “Whites Only” signs. No more “literacy” tests. Etc. Instead, we have superfulous voter ID laws which enterprising people can deal with. So, from a legal point of view and thanks to the efforts of people denounced as “Commies”, things are much improved.

    The reason that race relations may be perceived to be worse is part of the Trump phenomenon – those out and out racists from the good old days have been emboldened by his rhetoric, crawled out from under their rocks and have made themselves far more evident. (“Group One”)

    A second aspect of the current situation is what used to be called the “revolution of rising expectations.” Once significant progress against injustice has been achieved, the victims of injustice and their children say to themselves . . . “Why should I have to put up with ANY injustice? I am as mad as Hell and I am not going to take it anymore.” (“Group Two”)

    Today we see Group One versus Group Two played out in politics, social media and sometimes unfortunately in the streets.

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  3. “The concept of systemic racism holds that our institutions treat minorities unfairly, regardless of the individuals who work in or populate them.”

    Correct. You’ve answered your own question.

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      1. “The concept of systemic racism holds that our institutions treat minorities unfairly, regardless of the individuals who work in or populate them.”

        This statement seems to acknowledge the existence of systemic racism absent the personal feelings of individuals.

        “It is a real puzzle to contemplate how this could be when interpersonal race relations are so much improved.”

        Then this asks why less reported individual racism doesn’t reduce systemic racism after already acknowledging no relationship between the two.

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          2. No, it is a refutation. You still haven’t answered my question, How does my post answer the question it raises?

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  4. ” It is a real puzzle to contemplate how this could be when interpersonal race relations are so much improved.”

    Without acknowledging the differences between interpersonal relationships and systemic situations, a key point of the issue is not covered. While you and I may treat others fairly, without regards to anything except their character, systems, including banking, policing, and criminal justice haven’t caught up with us yet.

    People good, systems bad.

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    1. Prove it!! Anecdotal situations are not proof. One could easily claim that blacks are prone to resisting arrest, attempting to get off in court instead of plea bargain when they are guilty no question or attempting to game banking with false info to buy that of which they can’t afford. Resisting arrest or noncompliance is obviously happening, numerous court cases attempting to get off have been publish in the Pilot many times but banking would require personal identifying informantion to prove. I used to love watching COPS and watch the dopes. Cops knew blacks were more susceptible to running and typically told BS stories. One guy, after drugs being found on him of course claimed “it’s not mine” and when the cop said he just pulled them out of his pants, he said “these aren’t my pants!!!” There were stupid white guys too but typically cooperative however if they weren’t they were treated the same.

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      1. “Prove it!!”

        The overwhelming evidence that we still have systemic racism to deal with in our institutions is anecdotal, testimonial and statistical. Your defiant “Prove it!” only shows that there is NO evidence that would change your pre-conceived ideas. And it is the preconceived ideas that you exhibit that makes it difficult to expunge “systemic racism.”

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        1. RE: “The overwhelming evidence that we still have systemic racism to deal with in our institutions is anecdotal, testimonial and statistical.”

          That’s debatable. You might, however, address the question raised in the post that started this thread: How is is possible for systemic racism to exist when the people who operate the system are racially tolerant? A good way to start might be to give an example that illustrates the process.

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          1. The fact that you talk about people manning institutions being “racially tolerant” is itself a tell. What, pray tell, is there to be “tolerant” about?

            Besides, someone can be friendly, personable and helpful to people of all races and still be a “European civilization chauvinist” carrying a load of biases and negative expectations about people who may not be members of that tribe.

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        2. There no objective evidence that would convince your preconceived notions that it does exist. Example is your preconceived notions that blacks get pulled over less often at night because cops can’t see their race. What a crock but you profess it just has to be and nothing else. BS, BS, BS.

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          2. BS, BS, BS.

            It is telling how emotional some people get on this issue.

            The study I linked to found that non-white people are stopped by traffic cops far more than white people. It also found that this difference almost disappears at night. I think it is obvious that night-time stops are race neutral while day-time stops reflect systemic racism. You call it a “crock” but offer no other explanation that makes even a tiny bit of sense.

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      2. You talk about anecdotal situations and then you refer to a reality TV show? 45 is so far in your soul, you can’t even come up with a cogent argument to support your PRECONCEIVED wishes that what is true isn’t.

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    2. RE: “While you and I may treat others fairly, without regards to anything except their character, systems, including banking, policing, and criminal justice haven’t caught up with us yet.”

      It is hard to imagine an example. After all, systems don’t have minds or souls.

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      1. …”systems don’t have minds or souls.”

        but corporation shave 1A rights?

        Silly comparison when the systems have been shown to be stacked against people of color to generations. Your ignoring of it, or searching out of alternative theories to disprove what you don’t want to believe is not helpful and displays a certain level of ignorance.

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          1. Redlining in mortgage approvals and neighborhoods, unfettered attacks on gamers of color within the systems of that world, and bad cops not getting punished for their bad behavior BY THE SYSTEM.

            You asked for one; I cited three. Now I know that you are going to find a way to dispute them with alternative facts. Because that is what you do. You find things that defend your position, but often times they are not realistic.

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  5. The country was healing quite well, thank you. But then Obama decided he needed help in the popularity polls, so he would play the race card, again and again. So we had Ferguson. So we had Baltimore..So we had Charlottesville. The trick throughout is to remove the police from the scene, and the public be damned.
    This trick was so successful that the Dems did it throughout the summer of 2020. We had the so-called insurrection. And they continue to demonize police now. Their contempt for the country is boundless.

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    1. So, Obama played the race card to gain in the popularity polls? How exactly was that supposed to work? He already had the support of 98% of African-Americans. You think playing the “race card” was supposed to increase his popularity with white voters? Nonsense. Obviously. President Obama spoke the truth on racial matters and the truth of what he said has been reconfirmed over and over again since he left office.

      You better go back to your Birtherism and Pizza-gate. They make you seem less of a silly, uh, “European civilization chauvinist” fool than this attempt at political analysis.

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      1. RE: “So, Obama played the race card to gain in the popularity polls?”

        Could be. The WSJ writer suggested as much when he wrote, “Using survey data, Mr. Kaufmann notes that racial attitudes have been trending toward more tolerance for well over half a century, even as black politicians (Mr. Obama, Kamala Harris ), professional polemicists (Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ibram X. Kendi ) and major media organs (the New York Times’s “1619 Project”) continue to insist otherwise.”

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        1. Uh, I grant you that it is a logical possibility that President Obama expressed sympathy for black victims of police and vigilante violence as a ploy to increase his popularity among white voters. It remains, however, political nonsense here in the good old USA.

          Not surprisingly, the WSJ writer is lying when he claims that President Obama or VP Harris have denied the progress made in the last decades. Not surprisingly because lying is what they do throughout the Rupert Murdoch hate and propaganda empire.

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        2. RE: “Not surprisingly, the WSJ writer is lying when he claims that President Obama or VP Harris have denied the progress made in the last decades.”

          The WSJ writer makes no such claim. The quotation I cite says only that Obama, Harris and others haven’t acknowledged the tolerance trend the writer documents. You have, as usual raised a straw man.

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          1. “You have, as usual raised a straw man.”

            Uh, actually, you, as usual, cannot parse straightforward English. However, you want to word it, the idea that President Obama has not repeatedly acknowledged the progress made is simply FALSE. For example he said this after the events in Ferguson . . .

            “We need to recognize that this is not just an issue for Ferguson, this is an issue for America. We have made enormous progress in race relations over the course of the past several decades. I’ve witnessed that in my own life. And to deny that progress I think is to deny America’s capacity for change.”

            So, if you can read that direct quote and still beleive that this WSJ writer is being truthful then there is nothing left to say to you except that like for all of your ilk, the truth is almost never convenient.

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      2. He played the race card to divide the nation. He is half black and half white but chose to identify as black when he had the chance to appeal to both. Then he made ignorant public statements about how black criminals that got killed “could be his son”. All this to alienated whites and bring about resentment when race relations were doing just fine.

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        1. “He is half black and half white but chose to identify as black . . .”

          Who do you think you are fooling? Besides yourself. People like you would NEVER let President Obama identify as anything but black. You come from a culture that obsessed about the effect of a great great grandparent who was black on someone’s “whiteness.” Such matters were event part of the law. Other than the color of his skin, Obama personifies the ideals and values of European Christian civilization more authentically than any predecessor but still you hate him.

          President Obama made that statement about someone who could be his son about Trayvon Martin who was NOT a criminal but just an innocent black teenager murdered by a racist vigilante. That you would find that true and empathetic observation offensive only shows how deeply embedded your sense of white entitlement is. Whether you are aware of it or not.

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          1. Dont try to patronize me with your racist crap. You know nothing about me but your k8nd is obvious.

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        2. …”about how black criminals that got killed “could be his son””

          That was a shoplifter shot by a neighborhood watch moron. Why is that statement not true or ignorant?

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    2. Your so full of poo, your wife’s eyes are brown.

      Blaming Obama for every thing is akin to those of us who have been accused of blaming 45 for everything. 45 is responsible for a lot more of the issues we have today than Obama could even attempt to be.

      I get it. You, like Don, hate anything and everyone that is a Democrat and it their “socialist agenda” (as opposed to social democracy which is much more accurate) that is doing all of this. I got news for you; You are wrong.

      The “so-called insurrection”? What do you call it? A couple of idiots trespassing? Demonizing the police? The bad ones deserve to be demonized.

      It is YOUR contempt that is appalling and boundless.

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