Discrimination & Prejudice

Most Americans say Martin Luther King Jr. has had a positive impact on the country, with 47% saying he has had a very positive impact. 52% say the country has made a great deal or a fair amount of progress on racial equality in the past six decades.

About eight-in-ten American adults (81%) say civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. has had a positive impact on the United States.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to limit affirmative action in higher education is likely to have the biggest impact on a relatively small group of schools.

Here’s a closer look at what recent surveys have found about Americans’ views of affirmative action.

Today, 51% of U.S. adults say they support the Black Lives Matter movement – down from 67% in June 2020. A majority of Americans say the increased focus on race and racial inequality in the past three years hasn't led to improvement for Black Americans.

About half of Asian adults who have heard of affirmative action (53%) say it is a good thing, 19% say it is a bad thing, and 27% say they don’t know whether it is good or bad. However, about three-quarters of all Asian adults (76%) say race or ethnicity should not factor into college admissions decisions.

Half of U.S. adults say they disapprove of selective colleges and universities taking prospective students’ racial and ethnic backgrounds into account when making admissions decisions. 33% approve of colleges considering race and ethnicity to increase diversity at the schools, while 16% are not sure.

Workplace diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, or DEI, are increasingly becoming part of national political debates. For a majority of employed U.S. adults (56%), focusing on increasing DEI at work is a good thing. But relatively small shares of workers place a lot of importance on diversity at their workplace.

Around a third of U.S. school districts mention the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in their mission statements. But these references are far more common in parts of the country won by Joe Biden in 2020 than in areas won by Donald Trump.

Overall, 30% of U.S. adults say descendants of people enslaved in the U.S. should be repaid in some way. 68% say they should not be repaid.