Pew Research Center On Black Attitudes

Pew Research Center has released a survey of black American opinion, where blacks are less upbeat about the state of black progress now than at any time since 1983. However, most blacks say that blacks who don't get ahead are mainly responsibile for their situation, and view a growing values gap between the black middle-class and the black poor. Almost four in ten black Americans also say that because of diversity within Black America, blacks can no longer be thought of as a single race.

Only one-in-five blacks say things are better for blacks now than they were five years ago. 44% believe that life for blacks will get better in the future, down from the 57% who said so in a 1986 survey.

53% of African Americans say that blacks who don't get ahead are mainly responsible for their situation, while 30% blame racial discrimination. Among blacks under age 50, 60% say blacks who don't get ahead are mainly responsible for their situation while 25% blame racism. Pew Research Center reports that as recently as the mid-1990s, black opinion on this question tilted in the opposite direction, with a majority of African Americans saying then that discrimination is the main reason for a lack of black progress.

However, black Americans still do perceive racial discrimination in America. 67% say they perceive it when they apply for a job, 65% when they seek housing, 43% in applying to college, and 50% when they go to a restaurant or shop. When Pew asked black Americans to identify the major problems in black Americans communities, 58% of respondents said a "lack of good jobs." 50% also identified single mothers as a problem, 49% said crime, 46% school drop-out rates, and 32% the quality of local schools.

Asked whether blacks can still be thought of as a single race, given the increasing diversity within the black community, 53% of blacks say they can, but 37% of blacks say they cannot.

Big gaps in perception between blacks and whites emerge on many topics. For example, blacks believe that anti-black discrimination is still pervasive in everyday life; whites disagree. And blacks have far less confidence than whites in the basic fairness of the criminal justice system. But there are also areas of agreement. For example, blacks and whites concur that there has been a convergence in the values held by blacks and whites. On the popular culture front, large majorities of both blacks and whites say that rap and hip hop have a bad influence on society. Blacks and whites express very little overt racial animosity. As they have for decades, about eight-in-ten members of each racial group express a favorable view about members of the other group. More than eight-in-ten adults in each group also say they know a person of a different race whom they consider a friend.

76% say that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois) is a good influence on black communities. Even greater numbers say this about Oprah Winfrey (87%) and Bill Cosby (85%), who are the most highly regarded by blacks from among 14 black newsmakers tested in this survey. By contrast, only 17% of blacks say that thug rapper 50 Cent is a good influence (42% say that he is a bad influence).

Over the past two decades, blacks have lost some confidence in the effectiveness of leaders within Black America, including national black political figures, the clergy, and the NAACP. A sizable majority of blacks still see all of these groups as either very or somewhat effective, but the number saying "very" effective has declined since 1986.

Black Americans generally agree that most immigrants work harder than most blacks and most whites at low-wage jobs. Also, blacks are less inclined now than they were two decades ago to say that blacks would have more jobs if there were fewer immigrants.