Differences in Black and White Opinion on Important Issues of Public Policy.

Drawing mainly on cross tabulations of some variables from the General Social Survey of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut, this paper reports black and white Americans' opinions on key issues of policy debate in the United States. In some cases, opinions are reported over a span as long as 22 years. When necessary, the report has drawn on other data sources, including newspaper polling results. Opinions are given in five sections: (1) economics; (2) social; (3) politics; (4) racial attitudes; and (5) views on the role of the government. The educational researcher finds some opinions of education particularly interesting. For example, a majority of Americans favor the Supreme Court's banning of school prayer, but there are differences between blacks and whites about the ban. Support for the ban among African Americans has consistently been weaker than among whites. By 1984, support had fallen to as low as 18%. Another social issue discussed is the busing of children from one school district to another. White support for busing was generally weak in the 1970s, but rose in the 1980s, to a peak of 30% in 1991. African American support for busing has hovered between 50 and 60%, but appears to have leveled at slightly less than 60% since 1990. Related to the field of education is the belief of more than three-quarters of whites and 82% of blacks that differences in income, jobs, and housing between these ethnic groups is not due to blacks having less inborn ability to learn. However, evidence from the survey indicates that historically a majority of white Americans does not agree that the Federal Government has a special obligation to African Americans because of past discrimination. Blacks support, although not by a wide margin, the idea that the government does owe a special debt to African Americans. Appendixes contain seven tables of supplemental information about survey responses and other data. (Contains 28 figures.) (SLD)