Beliefs In Black and White: How Race Influences Americans’ Perceptions of Themselves, Their Racial Group, and Their National Group

Abstract

Over the past century, African Americans have made significant progress on a broad range of fronts, including life expectancy, employment and income, education, and political representation (e.g., Sears et al. 2000; Thernstrom and Thernstrom 1999). Moreover, the rapidly growing multicultural movement (e.g., Fowers and Richardson 1996) has signaled a new Zeitgeist in terms of racial and ethnic relations. For arguably the first time in U.S. history, there is widespread recognition that none of the nation’s many racial and ethnic groups are inherently or culturally superior to any other (National Opinion Research Center 2002a). Furthermore, the multicultural movement has successfully transplanted into the mainstream the previously radical notion that cultural diversity ought to be not merely tolerated but rather encouraged and celebrated.