Massachusetts Residents Give Thumbs Down to Race Relations
Despite having elected their first Black governor, a majority of Massachusetts residents rate race relations in the state as “fair” or “poor,” according to a new survey conducted by the University of Massachusetts-Boston’s John D. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies.
A total of 42 percent of Blacks and 49 percent of Hispanics said they had experienced discrimination in the past year. While 45 percent of Whites and 43 percent of Asians state that conditions have “gotten better” for minority groups, just 16 percent of Blacks and 29.3 percent of Hispanics agreed.
“Boston’s economic future is going to depend on our ability to attract and sustain a racially and ethnically diverse population in order to spur innovation and growth in an increasingly competitive world,” says UMass-Boston Chancellor Michael F. Collins. “The new research shows we have social challenges to confront to better develop our workforce and improve the civic health of our cities and towns and the neighborhoods that sustain them.”
The findings of the Boston Diversity Project survey of 749 adults showed that 56 percent of Whites, 75 percent of Blacks, 67 percent of Hispanics and 52 percent of Asians rated the quality of race relations today as “fair” or “poor.”
Among other findings, when provided with information about the matter, 82 percent of Blacks, 80.5 percent of Hispanics, 70.9 percent of Asians and 69.7 percent of Whites favor charging in-state rates at public universities to undocumented immigrants who graduate high school there.
“Massachusetts has taken the significant step of electing our first African-American governor, but it’s clear that race relations is a standing area of improvement our major institutions need to begin to confront,” says Dr. Steve Crosby, dean of the McCormack Graduate School. “As a university with an urban mission, our role is to turn our research into action and not just lead the discussion, but lead change.”
