Smith says that civil-rights efforts over the past quarter century have concentrated on reforming policy, not reshaping attitudes. “The changes brought on by civil rights legislation, voting rights statutes and equal-opportunity bills … have had the highest priority.” The attitudes have been shaped by deep-rooted factors, Smith says, including “childhood acculturation” and the images of hopelessness sent to white America from the ghetto. Lawrence Bobo, a professor of sociology at UCLA who helped formulate the survey, blames the de facto segregation in American cities for permitting negative images to flourish. “Stereotypes are common because of the disproportionate concentration of blacks and Hispanics in certain areas,” he says.
The report’s authors do, however, find a few signs of hope. The survey suggests that whites are becoming more receptive to mixed neighborhoods and interracial marriages. “Negative images are in decline among better-educated and younger Americans,” says Smith. He thinks the climate is right for using the classroom as a battleground against racial prejudice. “Focusing on education and stressing such concepts as cultural pluralism and tolerance may be the best route,” he says. With enough effort, Archie Bunker may one day become a stereotype of the past.
