Ask the Expert: Classifying Race and Ethnicity
Question: Your surveys often show results based on “non-Hispanic whites” and “non-Hispanic blacks”. Why aren’t Hispanics counted in these categories?
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Question: Your surveys often show results based on “non-Hispanic whites” and “non-Hispanic blacks”. Why aren’t Hispanics counted in these categories?
Hispanic voters are nearly three times more prevalent in states that gained congressional seats and Electoral College votes in the 2010 reapportionment than they are in states that lost seats.
Pluralities say that coverage of poor people and Muslims is too negative, while somewhat smaller percentages say the same about coverage of blacks and Hispanics. About a third say that coverage of wealthy people is too positive — the highest percentage for any group tested.
Compared with older groups, particularly Americans ages 50 or older, younger Americans are significantly more likely to be accepting of interracial marriage and are more likely to have friends of a different race.
The public has generally been supportive of affirmative action programs, but is decidedly opposed to the idea of providing preferential treatment to minorities.
Because Muslim Americans make up a very small percentage of the U.S. public, it is difficult to provide a reliable picture of their views and differences in survey design can crucially affect findings.
While the outcome of the North Carolina primary fit into a racial pattern observed in earlier primaries this year, Clinton’s showing in Indiana was less strong than would have been expected.
This week’s primaries show that, results in Wisconsin aside, pre-primary polls may either over- or underestimate support for Obama depending on state racial demographics.
Race, ethnicity and politics can sometimes make for a volatile mix, but a poll finds that race relations in this country are on a pretty even keel.
Race still plays a role in U.S. politics but it showed up in surprising ways in tallies from Democratic primary elections so far this year.
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