RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events February is Black History month.

I don't know if WB is correct, but the generalization of which he speaks is not an uncommon belief, or even one held exclusively by white people. As the St. Petersburg Times noted:

• most everyone agrees that the image of King Street, U.S.A., is largely of a destitute, crime-ridden area. It's a stigma comedian Chris Rock uses in his standup routine.
  
  It goes like this: Rock says a white friend called him for directions. The man said he was calling from King Street.
  
  "Run!" Rock tells him.
  
  "I don't care where you live in America," Rock says, "if you're on Martin Luther King Boulevard, there's some violence going on."
  
  That perception of the nation's 680 King streets too often matches reality, says Jerry Kolo, a professor at Florida Atlantic University. Once intended as a symbol of equality, the roads have become the dividing line between black and white America.

The most profound influence in his life, his wife Michelle, is notoriously less circumspect than her careful husband about where she's coming from. Her college thesis, which Princeton tried to keep under lock and key, testifies to a race-obsessed worldview. She may have refined it, but she's never grown out of it.

After four years at one of America's most esteemed academic institutions, Michelle recoiled at the thought of "further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant." That the sky has been the limit for her, that she has managed to ride the "periphery" from Princeton to Harvard Law School, to one of the country's top law firms, and to a plethora of prestigious institutional positions, has not much altered her perspective. Through the windows of her mansion on Chicago's south side, American society still appears as a caste system.

The United States, she says, is "just downright mean." Never, prior to her husband's presidential run, had she had a reason to feel proud of it, she told a campaign throng. But by last November, with Barack's pursuit of the brass ring catching momentum, she suddenly got plenty proud. And confident: so much so that she was moved to tell MSNBC, "Black America will wake up and get it" -- unite and carry him over the finish line.

A newly released Rasmussen Report indicates that on average Americans consider black Americans to be more racist than whites and Hispanics.

Ideology seemingly plays a large role in public on this issue. Among conservatives, 49 percent consider blacks to be more racist compared to 27 percent of liberals. Twelve percent of conservatives and 27 percent of liberals say whites are more racist.

The partisan perspective shows a similar trend with 49 percent of Republicans and only 29 percent of Democrats saying blacks are more racist. Thirty-six percent of unaffiliated adults feel this way as well.

Interestingly, the race of the respondent seems to be less important than politics.

Among black poll respondents, 31 percent said blacks are more racist, while 24 percent think whites are more racist and 15 percent say Hispanic Americans show greater racist tendencies. Ten percent of white Americans say whites are more racist, 38 say blacks are and 17 percent say Hispanics.

Overall, 37 percent of Americans feel that black Americans are the most racist among the three ethnic groups, 15 percent feel that whites are and 18 percent think Hispanics are.

These figures are reflective of the current overall attitude of race relations, in which 30 percent of Americans feel that racial rapport is good or excellent rapport, 14 percent think current relations are poor, 29 percent think the current trends indicate improvement and 35 percent see neither progress nor regression. Blacks are more optimistic about the current state of affairs than whites and Hispanics, as are liberals versus conservatives.

A newly released Rasmussen Report indicates that on average Americans consider black Americans to be more racist than whites and Hispanics.

Ideology seemingly plays a large role in public on this issue. Among conservatives, 49 percent consider blacks to be more racist compared to 27 percent of liberals. Twelve percent of conservatives and 27 percent of liberals say whites are more racist.

The partisan perspective shows a similar trend with 49 percent of Republicans and only 29 percent of Democrats saying blacks are more racist. Thirty-six percent of unaffiliated adults feel this way as well.

Interestingly, the race of the respondent seems to be less important than politics.

Among black poll respondents, 31 percent said blacks are more racist, while 24 percent think whites are more racist and 15 percent say Hispanic Americans show greater racist tendencies. Ten percent of white Americans say whites are more racist, 38 say blacks are and 17 percent say Hispanics.

Overall, 37 percent of Americans feel that black Americans are the most racist among the three ethnic groups, 15 percent feel that whites are and 18 percent think Hispanics are.

These figures are reflective of the current overall attitude of race relations, in which 30 percent of Americans feel that racial rapport is good or excellent rapport, 14 percent think current relations are poor, 29 percent think the current trends indicate improvement and 35 percent see neither progress nor regression. Blacks are more optimistic about the current state of affairs than whites and Hispanics, as are liberals versus conservatives.

Mexicans see Americans as racist, dishonest and exploitative, while Americans see Mexicans as hardworking and think they are more tolerant than Americans.

A new survey of attitudes the two countries hold toward each other showed the border is more than a geographic divide, but also a fissure in public opinions of the two nations and what their citizens think of each other.

The poll, taken by New York-based Zogby International and the Centro de Investigacion para el Desarrollo AC in Mexico City, found that 62 percent of Mexicans surveyed said the United States is more wealthy than Mexico because “it exploits others’ wealth.” Only 22 percent said it was because the United States is “a free country where people have plenty of opportunity to work.”

Among Americans, 78 percent saw Mexicans as hardworking, and 44 percent saw them as tolerant. Among Mexicans, just 26 percent saw Americans as hardworking, 16 percent saw them as honest and 73 percent said Americans are racist.

“Mexicans think Americans are neither hard workers nor honest,” the report’s authors wrote. “They see them as racist, intolerant and moderately law-abiding.”

The study comes as Congress is debating how to increase immigration enforcement and whether to create a guest-worker program that would allow new foreign workers and current illegal aliens — a majority of whom are Mexican nationals — to apply.

President Bush yesterday called for a “civil” debate, saying the nation has “been through these periods before where the immigration debate can get harsh.”

“And it should not be harsh,” he added.

He repeated his pledge that those who take part in his proposed guest-worker program should not be allowed to join the line for citizenship out of order, but he conceded there’s a question of “what about the person who’s been here since 1987.” He did not answer that question.

The House last year passed an immigration-enforcement bill that calls for building nearly 700 miles of fence on the U.S.-Mexico border, but the new poll says that’s unpopular among both Americans and Mexicans. Fully 90 percent of Mexicans oppose a wall, as do 69 percent of Americans.

Still, the poll found that 62 percent of Americans want their member of Congress to support “more restrictive” immigration laws, while 30 percent support “more open” laws.

While 84 percent of Americans had a favorable opinion of Mexicans, just 27 percent have a favorable opinion of the Mexican government. By contrast, just 36 percent of Mexicans have a favorable opinion of Americans.

And yet nearly half of the Mexicans surveyed said crossing the border and working illegally in the United States would improve their lives — 45 percent said yes, while 47 percent said no.

The U.S. portion of the poll included 1,010 persons; the Mexican portion surveyed 1,000. The U.S. margin of error was 3.2 percentage points; the Mexican margin was 3.1 percentage points.

The article clearly said that polling across all racial groups, blacks are perceived as the most racist, even among blacks.

....