Whites, Blacks Divided on Whether We Talk About Race Too Much or Not Enough

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In 2015 for the first time YouGov research showed that most Americans think that race relations in the United States are ‘bad’. 2014 was a particularly controversial year after the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner which prompted large protests across the country. {snip}

YouGov’s latest research shows that there is a significant divide between black Americans and the rest of the country about whether or not people talk too much about race. Most white people (57%) and half of Hispanics (49%) think that people talk too much about race. Among black Americans, however, only 18% think that people talk too much about race while 49% think we talk too little about it. Only 18% of white Americans think that Americans do not talk enough about race.

White Democrats are divided between those who think we talk too much (33%) and too little (32%) about race, but large majorities of white independents (60%) and white Republicans (77%) think we talk too much about race.

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Among white Americans whose highest level of education is a high school diploma, only 23% worry about sounding racist while 68% don’t worry about it. People with four year degrees are evenly split between the 46% who do worry about sounding racist and the 45% who don’t. Most white Americans with a post-graduate education (52%) sometimes worry about saying something that sounds racist.

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Black Americans report that their racial identity is far more important for them than for any other group. 68% of black Americans say that being black is ‘very important’ to them, compared to 49% of Hispanic Americans and only 17% of white Americans. Most while Americans (53%) say that their racial identity is either ‘not very’ or ‘not at all’ important, something only 13% of black and Hispanic Americans agree with.