Most Whites Cling to Racial Stereotypes, Survey Reports

Most whites hold fast to negative stereotypes of blacks and Latinos even while white support for racial equality is gaining ground, a survey found.

Three of four whites believe blacks and Latinos are more likely than whites to prefer living on welfare, the General Social Survey by the National Opinion Research Center found. And most whites think that blacks and Latinos are more likely to be lazy, violence-prone, less intelligent and less patriotic.

Yet the survey results released today also showed increased support among whites for racial equality.

“With all this positive change, one might have assumed there has been an equal breakdown of negative imagery,” said Larry Bobo, who teaches sociology at UCLA and helped design the survey questions.

“It’s ironic, given that some other forms of negative attitudes toward minorities--favoring discrimination in housing, jobs, education--have basically disappeared.”

The center conducted face-to-face interviews with 1,372 adults nationwide last year.

Respondents were asked to rate whites, blacks, Latinos, Asians, Jews and Southern whites on a scale of 1 to 7 on six characteristics: rich or poor, hard-working or lazy, prone to violence or not, intelligent or not, self-supporting or on welfare, patriotic or not.

The survey found that among whites:

* Seventy-eight percent thought blacks more likely to prefer living on welfare and 74% thought Latinos more likely to prefer welfare.

* Sixty-two percent thought blacks less likely to be hard-working; 56% thought blacks more violence-prone; 53% thought blacks less intelligent, and 51% thought blacks less patriotic.

* Fifty-six percent thought Latinos more likely to be lazy; 50% thought Latinos more likely to be violence-prone; 55% thought Latinos less likely to be intelligent, and 61% thought them less patriotic.