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- Jun 27, 2011
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From 2010 to 2014, the World Values Survey asked residents in over 50 countries who they would not want as neighbors. Just over 5 percent of respondents in the United States said “people of a difference race.” That’s far more tolerant a response than citizens of most European, African and Asian countries gave. As a comparison, 15 percent of Germans, 41 percent of Indians and 22 percent of Japanese said they wouldn’t want to live next to “people of a different race.” The Washington Post depicted the results in a useful chart.
The survey is probably not a perfect indicator of how pervasive racism is in a given society, but the results do correlate with what we know anecdotally. Take, for instance, the fact that America elected and then reelected a black man for president.
Yes, I know. Some in the civil rights industry like to argue that this doesn’t mean anything. But of course it does. Blacks make up just 13 percent of the U.S. population. There aren’t too many examples of a democratic country electing someone from such a distinct and previously persecuted minority to their top office.
It is totally impossible, for instance, to imagine a person of color being elected to lead any major country in Europe, at least anytime in the near future. Same with Canada. Same with a racial or religious minority anywhere in Asia or Africa. Perhaps there are examples of leaders from minority groups being elected in free and open elections to the top office of the land in a few countries, but none come immediately to mind. Even the white interim president of Zambia doesn’t exactly qualify because he wasn’t elected to the post. The point is, if it is not unprecedented, it is pretty rare. It means something that the United States elected an African-American president.
The survey is probably not a perfect indicator of how pervasive racism is in a given society, but the results do correlate with what we know anecdotally. Take, for instance, the fact that America elected and then reelected a black man for president.
Yes, I know. Some in the civil rights industry like to argue that this doesn’t mean anything. But of course it does. Blacks make up just 13 percent of the U.S. population. There aren’t too many examples of a democratic country electing someone from such a distinct and previously persecuted minority to their top office.
It is totally impossible, for instance, to imagine a person of color being elected to lead any major country in Europe, at least anytime in the near future. Same with Canada. Same with a racial or religious minority anywhere in Asia or Africa. Perhaps there are examples of leaders from minority groups being elected in free and open elections to the top office of the land in a few countries, but none come immediately to mind. Even the white interim president of Zambia doesn’t exactly qualify because he wasn’t elected to the post. The point is, if it is not unprecedented, it is pretty rare. It means something that the United States elected an African-American president.
