Ethnic Newspapers Sponsor Race Relations Poll
December 13, 2007
New America Media, the country’s first and largest national collaboration of ethnic news organizations, will release next week the results of the first-ever multilingual poll of America’s three major minority groups and the state of interracial, interethnic relations in this country.
More than 1,000 Asian, Hispanic and black Americans across the country were interviewed in seven languages. The survey’s data will disaggregate Asian American data into Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and Filipino categories.
The poll, conducted by pollster Sergio Bendixen, is a call to action for 12 of the top ethnic media news organizations that sponsored it (including AsianWeek) by investing more than $80,000. Results include respondents’ views on ethnic media and their role in facilitating interracial communication.
The survey findings also show the extent to which the three groups believe racial tensions to be a serious problem demanding attention. Blacks, Hispanics and Asians polled reported how many friends they had from the other groups and whether they would prefer to deal with whites than with each other. They also stated whether they anticipated race relations to improve over the next decade.
The fact that “the big dozen” ethnic media news outlets sponsored the poll is almost as important as the research findings the poll will produce, sending a message that the ethnic media sector wants to know and report on the true state of race relations in their communities. Tae Soo Jeong of the Korea Times calls the poll the “know-each-other poll to address mutual misunderstandings.”
The results of New America Media’s African American, Hispanic and Asian Poll on Race Relations will be released nationally on Dec. 12.
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