Racial Bias & Discrimination

Most Black adults (63%) say voting is an extremely or very effective strategy for Black progress; only 42% say the same of protesting.

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.

About half of Black adults (52%) say racism in U.S. laws is the bigger problem for Black people, while 43% cite racism by individuals.

In this companion documentary, Asian American participants described navigating their own identity. These participants were not part of our focus group study but were similarly sampled to tell their own stories.

The stories shared by participants in our video documentary reflect opinions, experiences and perspectives similar to those we heard in the focus groups. Watch extended interviews that were not included in our documentary but present thematically relevant stories.

Use this quote sorter to read how focus group participants answered the question, “What does it mean to be you in America?”

In a new analysis based on dozens of focus groups, Asian American participants described the challenges of navigating their own identity in a nation where the label “Asian” brings expectations about their origins, behavior and physical self.

32% of Black adults said they worried every day or almost every day that they might be threatened or attacked because of their race or ethnicity.

Most Asian Americans say violence against them is increasing, and most also worry at least some of the time about being threatened or attacked.

In 2020, Afro-Latino Americans made up about 2% of the U.S. adult population and 12% of the adult Latino population.