The FINANCIAL -- Just over one-in-five Likely U.S. Voters (22%) now support government
programs that give special treatment when hiring to women and
minorities.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 63% oppose programs that give hiring preference to women and minorities. That’s up eight points from 55% a year ago. Fifteen percent (15%) are not sure about them.
When asked specifically about “affirmative action programs” in general without any further description, 26% of voters favor them, while 45% are opposed. Thirty percent (30%) are undecided.
A plurality (46%) of voters believes affirmative action programs discriminate against white men, but 31% disagree. Twenty-three percent (23%) are not sure.
Still, just 10% think affirmative action programs have been a success. Twenty-five percent (25%) rate them as a failure, while 60% feel they fall somewhere in between success and failure.
With the exception of the question about hiring preferences for women and minorities, these findings are generally little changed from surveys back to July 2008.
The U.S. Supreme Court may soon be reviewing the use of racial preferences in college admissions following a recent federal appeals court ruling that struck down a voter-approved measure in Michigan outlawing such preferences. New California Governor Jerry Brown has joined a lawsuit that hopes to overturn a similar law in his state.
The national telephone survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted July 22-23, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error for each survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
A well-intentioned program dating from the 1960s, affirmative action has now become a political catch phrase, particularly among some white voters, for what is seen as mandated quotas based on special treatment or even reverse bias. For many minority voters, however, opposition to affirmative action is viewed as racism.
Male voters are much more critical of affirmative action programs than women are, although a majority (56%) of female voters also oppose government programs that give women and minorities hiring preference.
Seventy-four percent (74%) of black voters favor government programs that give special treatment to women and minorities. Sixty-nine percent (69%) of whites and 66% of voters of other races oppose these programs.
Most white voters (53%) think affirmative action programs discriminate against white men, but 61% of blacks disagree. Voters of other races are narrowly divided on the question.
Majorities of Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major party oppose affirmative action programs and government hiring efforts that give preferential treatment to women and minorities. Democrats tend to favor both but by much narrower margins.
Interestingly, 56% of the Political Class favor affirmative action programs, but 50% of those voters are opposed to government programs that give hiring preferences to women and minorities. Among Mainstream voters, the majority are opposed to both.
Thirty percent (30%) of those in the Mainstream view affirmative action programs as a failure. Eight-one percent (81%) of the Political Class regard them as somewhere in between a success and a failure.
Just 33% of American Adults rate race relations in the country today as good or excellent, and only 38% think race relations are getting better.
Americans tend to think their fellow citizens talk too much about race, but most agree that we have yet to achieve a level playing field for all races in this country.
Working Americans are more skeptical than ever that men and women are equally paid for comparable work, but there remains a wide difference of opinion between the sexes on the question.
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