Almost Half of White Republicans Are Bothered Hearing People ‘Speak a Language Other Than English’
Many Americans were horrified this week when a Georgia city councilman from a small, nearly all white town defended his mayor who refused to even consider hiring a candidate “because he is Black,” she said. They grew outraged when that city councilman announced his Christian upbringing led him to oppose interracial marriage, and said it made his “blood boil” to see white and Black people together. He insists he is “not racist.”
Their views may not be that far apart from the rest of the Republican Party.
Just one in three Republicans overall say “the fact that more people of different races are marrying each other” is good for the country, reports The Washington Post, citing a survey from the Pew Research Center. 16% of Republicans said the growth of interracial marriage is bad. 50% of Republicans say it is neither bad or good. 61% of Democrats say it is good.
Six in 10 Republicans Say America Would Be Weaker if Racial Minorities Were the Majority
More than one in three Republicans (37%) say they believe it would be bad for America if the majority of the nation were made up of racial minorities, including Black, Asian, and Hispanic people. And almost six out of ten Republicans say America would be weaker if racial minorities made up the majority of the nation.
“Nearly 60 percent of Republicans said that a majority nonwhite population would ‘weaken American customs and values,’ while an identical percentage predicted it would lead to greater conflict between racial and ethnic groups,” The Post notes.
Less than one in four Republicans say it is “very good” that “the U.S. population is made up of people of many different races and ethnicities.” More than seven out of 10 Democrats, 71 percent agree. Overall, 57% of Americans say diversity is good.
Meanwhile, nearly half of white Republicans, 47%, say they are actually bothered hearing people speaking a foreign language in public. By comparison, less than one in five Democrats, just 18%, say they are bothered to “hear people speak a language other than English in a public place.”
Image by Jennifer Borget via Flickr and a CC license