Race Relations in the 1980s

Abstract

It was assumed by many social scientists that a decline in prejudice would be accompanied by a decrease in racial discrimination; a change in belief would result in a change in behavior (Feagin and Feagin 1978: 3-5). Despite declines in survey-reported racial prejudice and the elimination of legally sanctioned and overt discrimination, blacks apparently are still experiencing racially motivated restrictions. At the beginning of the 1980s, blacks within the central city, as well as within newer suburban enclaves, are as tightly confined as ever in segregated communities (Tobin, 1979; Gappert and Knight, 1982). There is also little hope of further improving their circumstance relative to whites in the foreseeable future (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1978; U.S. Bureau of Census, 1979; Hill, 1978; Jones, 1981). In looking at the changes that have occurred over the last fifteen years, some analysts see race as a declining factor in determining one's life chances (Wilson, 1978). Lack of improvement in black social and economic circumstance is now due to the economic class circumstance in a no-growth economy. There is another view. Although William Wilson (1978) would interpret this change as the decline of race as a