According to a new poll released by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 55 percent of white people agreed that “discrimination against white people exists in the U.S. today.”
“If you apply for a job, they seem to give the blacks the first crack at it,” Ohio resident Tim Hershman, 68, a poll respondent, told NPR. “If you want any help from the government, if you’re white, you don’t get it. If you’re black, you get it. It’s been going on for decades, and it’s been getting worse for whites.”
The survey sampled 3,453 adults in the U.S. from Jan. 26 to April 9. Of those, 902 were white. According to NPR, the responses from white people could be broken down into three categories:
1. those who believe there is anti-white discrimination and say they have personally experienced it
2. those who say there is anti-white discrimination but say they have not experienced it firsthand
3. those who say there is no discrimination against whites in America
NPR noted that while a majority of whites in the poll say discrimination against them exists, a much smaller percentage say that they have actually experienced it. Also important to note is that 84 percent of whites believe discrimination exists against racial and ethnic minorities in America today.
Ninety-two percent of African Americans said discrimination against blacks exists in America today. More than half said they’d personally experienced discrimination when applying for jobs (56 percent), and being paid equally or considered for promotion (57 percent).
