Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 14, 1993 TAG: 9301140065
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
POLL SHOWS RACE DIVIDES TEENS
A study of more than 2,000 high-achieving students released Wednesday shows that black and white youths are miles apart in their perceptions of race and prejudice."We release this survey with great sadness because it shows that this next generation of Americans has not been inoculated against the racial virus that has divided previous generations," said Paul Krouse, publisher of Who's Who Among American High School Students.
The study found attitude gaps on issues such as racial discrimination, equal opportunity, trust in the police and interracial dating.
For example, three in five black students said they had experienced racial discrimination, while only 12 percent of white students acknowledged having made a member of a different ethnic group uncomfortable.
"Clearly there is an enormous discrepancy between the number of students who are experiencing racism and those who perceive their behavior as discriminatory," Krouse said. "If almost six out of 10 black students have felt themselves to be victims and only one in 10 white students acknowledges their complicity, then there is a need to sensitize people about what constitutes a discriminatory act," he said.
Other differences:
About 84 percent of the black students said minorities have fewer opportunities because of discrimination. The white students didn't agree; 44 percent of them saw affirmative action as reverse discrimination, and said minorities have more job opportunities than whites because of quotas and affirmative-action programs.
In the aftermath of the Rodney King beating, half of the black students surveyed said they have little or no trust in the police. Eighty percent of the white students say they did.
The same survey found 20 years ago that almost 70 percent of both black and white students were willing to date someone of a different race. In the new poll, the races had drifted apart, with 90 percent of the blacks willing to consider interracial dating, compared with 61 percent of the whites.
"We really have two different worlds out there," Krouse said. "How can two groups of high-achieving young people understand each other at all when they have no common reference point?"
The high achievers in the study, nominated by teachers and guidance counselors for inclusion in the student directory, are in the top 10 percent of American students academically.
The students' perceptions are undoubtedly shaped by their upbringing. They share the title of "high achievers," but little else. More than a quarter of the black students surveyed say their family's income was under $20,000, compared with 8 percent of white students whose families earned that little. Forty-one percent of white students' family income is more than $45,000 per year, compared with 17 percent of black students'.
Krouse said the key to bridging the racial gap is for the two races to stop blaming each other and start understanding each other.
"The black students we surveyed are growing up in a violent, economically and racially strained world, and their white peers don't even acknowledge their prejudice as a problem. It is critical that each group is sensitive to how the other feels so that we can ease these racial tensions."