Changing Racial Attitudes in Eastern North Carolina

Abstract

This is an extensive analysis of African-Americans' and whites' perceptions of each other, and the relationships between racial attitudes and social-welfare preferences, cultural traditionalism, levels of trust toward government, and levels of political conceptualization. The project consists of two phases. First, a mail survey and both individual and focus group interviews were conducted in 1995. Second, a telephone survey of eastern North Carolina residents was conducted in 1996. Both the surveys and the interviews revealed expected differences between the opinions of black and white people—for example, perceptions of prejudice, equality of opportunities and integration. In addition to six questions which were asked in 1995, the 1996 telephone survey collected black and white people's opinions of four strategies for ameliorating racial friction. Not only did the survey show that one of the four proposed strategies seems viable to both black and white people but also that, again, division between the races is remarkably intense.