Race relations unchanged or worse than in 1985, say half in AJC poll

This poll of 905 Georgians statewide was conducted Jan. 5-8 by Abt SRBI of New York. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points for each response.

Note: Telephone interviews were conducted by landline (n=541) and cellphone (n=364). The full sample of 905 Georgia residents was weighted to match the population parameters of the adult population in Georgia. The sample was balanced to match population parameters for sex, age, education level, race/Hispanic ethnicity, region (North, Atlanta Metro, Atlanta Exurbs, Southeast, Southwest), and telephone usage (cell-only, dual-user, landline-only). Some totals may not equal 100 percent due to rounding.

Less than half of Georgians say race relations in America have improved in the past 30 years. The rest are equally split between those who think things have gotten worse and those who think they’ve stayed the same.

To the surprise of some expert observers, the responses of white and black Georgians were broadly similar, with only nuanced differences, rather than the stark divisions often evident on racial issues.

For Charles S. Johnson III, president of the Southern Regional Council, which works for racial equality, the finding that only 50 percent of whites (and 42 percent of blacks) perceive racial progress means a half-empty glass.

“If there’s not a sense of optimism in the dominant (white) culture, there’s not a sense of optimism anywhere,” said Johnson, a prominent Atlanta attorney.

Philip Davis, 66, a white resident of Powder Springs, sees little cause for optimism, at least for his generation. “My wife and I talk about when people will be judged, as Dr. Martin Luther King said, by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. And I honestly feel it’s not going to be until I’m gone, my generation’s gone, the baby boomers are gone.”

To Morehouse College psychologist Dr. Bryant Marks, the poll’s takeaway was even more fundamental: “We do not live in a postracial society. Race still matters.”

But Georgia State University historian Dr. Clifford Kuhn took a different tack: With a significant plurality of blacks as well as whites saying race relations have improved, he said, “there’s some sort of general consensus that things are moderately better.”

“I’d say better,” said 22-year-old Sharmelle Gates, who is African-American. “While I was growing up, I didn’t have to deal with what the older people went through. At school, I didn’t feel treated any differently and there were all kinds of kids there,” said Gates, who lives in Clayton County.

She typifies a trend among younger respondents, who were more likely than their elders to see progress in race relations.

The insights on race emerged from a wide-ranging Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll of Georgia residents in advance of the legislative session that begins today.

One intriguing finding: A greater percentage of blacks than whites said race relations have stayed the same. Whites were likelier than blacks to say things have gotten better, and also likelier to say they’ve gotten worse. (Latinos and Asians were also among those surveyed, but not in large enough numbers to include them as separate groups in the analysis.)

But across the board, what struck the experts most was the relative similarity between the responses of whites and blacks.

“I went in thinking the differences would be rather large,” said Dr. Charles Jaret, an emeritus professor of sociology at Georgia State University.

“It’s interesting that the responses of black and white are so close,” Johnson agreed.

In general, whites are more likely to think of person-to-person interactions, whereas blacks are more concerned with persistent gaps in income, wealth, educational attainment, incarceration rates and other markers of social success, said Emory University sociologist Dr. Abigail Sewell.

Kelly Boswell and Quintel Brinson both think race relations have improved. The reasons they cite are different.

“We’re able to all get along,” said Boswell, 29, who is white and lives in Covington. “You’ve got blacks being friends with whites, whites being friends with blacks, Mexicans being friends with Chinese. We’re just all able to get along.”

For Brinson, a 31-year-old African-American who lives in Warner Robins, greater parity in the political and corporate arenas are his measuring stick. “If you look at the things African-Americans and other minorities have done over the last 30 years, we have a black president, people are getting jobs and positions that 30 years ago they might not have,” he said. “There’s diversity training at work.”

In particular, people who said race relations have deteriorated might mean very different things. Some might mean that discrimination and the suffering it causes have gotten worse. Others might mean that complaints about racial disparities are overblown and public outcry about them is damaging the country.

That, as well as assertions by some conservative commentators that President Obama’s actions have soured race relations, may explain why Republicans were considerably more likely than Democrats to perceive a deterioration.

“That probably reflects people who are uncomfortable with having race and racial issues talked about in the pubic forum,” Sewell said.

In follow-up conversations, several respondents, both white and black, also spoke of the disappearance of decorum and discipline as evidence that things have gotten worse.

“I seem to think it’s the younger generations causing some of the problem,” said Henry Boyle, 70, who is white and lives in Milledgeville. “Both sides of the fence, black and white. The discipline I had growing up was just more stringent than it is now.”

Kalven Burton, who is black and lives in Gwinnett County, concurs. “The youth, they don’t respect the police,” said Burton, 50. “They have their pants hanging down, they think it looks cool. It doesn’t.”

Other respondents spoke of the pervasive influence of media, the seemingly endless loop of of images of strife, as a driver of attitudes and perceptions.

“There’s so much more exposure these days via the media; how do you process it?” said Tiarra Alexander, president of the Atlanta-based Anti-Prejudice Consortium, which works with middle schoolers. Alexander is employed by Cox Enterprises, the parent company of the AJC.

Richard Ferguson, a 27-year-old African-American who lives in Lithonia, struggles with just that. “You see all these things on the news, like what happened in Ferguson, or police officers being executed,” he said. “Obviously law enforcement is scared. People are scared.”

Karin Brock, 72, saw racial progress as the civil rights movement brought an end to legal segregation. But she thinks things have worsened again in recent years.

“I have never had any problems with race relations. I feel that I treat every person equally,” said Brock, who is white and lives in Colquitt County. “I never had any problems with coworkers or anybody I met. But here lately, according to the paper and news media and everything else, it seems like everything’s worse.”

The year used as the baseline, 1985, is an interesting choice, said Marks, the Morehouse scholar. Not only had the most stirring civil rights victories begun to recede into the past, “that was when the war on drugs started, and that was a huge drag on the life course of African-American males.”

Kay Robinson thinks things have gotten worse, but her views are complicated. Robinson, 51, is African-American and lives in Lithonia. She has a 10-year-old son with autism who attends DeKalb County schools.

Thirty years ago, litigation to integrate schools was obviously the right thing to do, she said, and whites and blacks got together and did it. Now, she said, urban schools are struggling to cope with the effects of white flight.

“I’m going to be honest with you. DeKalb County (doesn’t) have the funds for a lot of these kids to get the things they need,” Robinson said. “Gwinnett gets what they want. Parents come out full force. DeKalb parents don’t come out, they’re working three and four jobs.”