Majorie Valbrun at America's Wire explores postracial America in a story that quotes social psychologists and experts on race relations, who say that structural racism is alive and well.
WASHINGTON — Recent public opinion polls show that more whites than African-Americans believe that the United States has entered a "post-racial" era in which racial bias doesn’t exist. But social psychologists and experts on race relations dispute that, citing wide racial disparities in education, unemployment, housing, health, wealth, incarceration rates and other quality-of-life measurements as proof of persistent structural racism in American society.
"It's time for us to change our approach to polling," says Dr. Gail C. Christopher, vice president for program strategy at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which promotes the welfare of children and works to strengthen families and communities. She believes that polls about race are overgeneralized and fail to address whether people understand more nuanced questions about what constitutes modern discrimination.
Christopher says most people are unfamiliar with the term "structural racism," which has been defined as "a system of social structures that produce cumulative, durable, race-based inequalities," and likely couldn't define it if polled. However, most people, she says, could answer questions about specific racial barriers to opportunities.
Read Marjorie Valbrun's entire story at America's Wire.