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How Perceptions About Opportunity Vary by Race [TheAtlantic.com]

 

Black and white Americans have dramatically different views on whether all children have equal access to the same opportunities.

While 77 percent of whites surveyed in an Atlantic Media/Pearson Opportunity Poll released this week think children of color in their neighborhood have access to the same opportunities as white children, just 41 percent of African Americans agree. More than 70 percent of Latinos and Asians polled agree with the statement, making the figure from black respondents the outlier, albeit not necessarily a surprising one.

Across a range of markers, from educational attainment to salary to health, black Americans lag behind white Americans. Black children are more likely to attend high-poverty schools with fewer resources and less-qualified teachers. Just 41 percent of blacks surveyed think the schooling children in their neighborhood receive is adequately preparing them for college work, compared with about half of whites, 61 percent of Latinos, and 63 percent of Asians. So it’s not necessarily surprising that African American respondents do not think children of color have the same opportunities as white children.

“I really don’t know where we can pick up and make it better,” said Venita Smith, an African American mother of three who was polled and lives in Oklahoma City. “I just wish we could all live in peace and harmony. It’s not going to happen, but I do wish that.”

[For more of this story, written Emily Deruy, go to http://www.theatlantic.com/edu...-opportunity/473127/]

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