The white myth: Blacks blame everyone but themselves for their problems. Since 1977, a majority of whites have agreed that the main reason blacks tend to “have worse jobs, income and housing than whites” is that they “just don’t have the motivation or willpower to pull themselves up out of poverty.” Fifty-seven percent of whites ascribed to that belief when NORC last asked the question, in 1991.
Fact: 1. when it comes to apportioning blame, blacks neither presume that big government is the answer to their problems nor shy away from self-criticism. 2. 1992 Gallup Poll of 511 blacks found that Just 1 in 4 blacks believed the most important way they could improve conditions in their communities was to “put more pressure on government to address their problems”; 2 of 3 opted for trying harder either to solve their communities’ problems themselves or to “better themselves personally and their families.” Whites are likely overestimate other whites’ support for racial segregation: blacks are likely to exaggerate whites’ belief that blacks have no self-discipline or are prone to violent crime. 3. Moreover, blacks and whites are far more optimistic about race relations and police fairness in their own communities than they are about other areas or the nation at large. A New-York Times/CBS News poll after the L.A. riots found that just 1 in 4 Americans thought race relations were good national wide, but 3 out 4 believed race relations were generally good in their communities.
The downside to these syndromes is that it could make it easier for whites and blacks in suburban and upscale neighborhood to write off blacks in poorer areas. 4. A Los Angeles times poll taken days after the riots found that nearly 80 percent of city residents felt they could suffer few if any hardships because of the riots’ after-effects, and 2 out 3 respondents said their lives were already back to normal. 5. On the other hand, the fact that whites and blacks mix more at work, at home and socially than previous decades suggests that increases in interracial contact could eventually help diminish stereotyping by both races. More tolerance will not solve the nation’s race problem by itself. But it sure wouldn’t hurt if one day. “them” became “us.”
