Has the U.S. achieved Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of a colorblind society?
"Fewer than half of all Americans say the country has made substantial progress in the past 50 years toward racial equality, a new poll shows," writes Associated Press reporter Hope Yen.
Despite a heightened sense of racial progress immediately following the 2008 election of the first black president, Americans' views of black progress have waned.
The study, released Thursday by the Pew Research Center, offers a mixed picture of progress five decades after King made his historic "I Have a Dream" speech calling for racial equality. The center is a Washington-based research organization.
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While large majorities of blacks and whites say the two races generally get along "very well" or "pretty well," blacks continue to substantially lag whites when it comes to household income and net worth, and nearly 8 in 10 African-Americans say a lot of work remains to be done to reach racial equality.
Blacks are more likely than other race groups to say they have been discriminated against in the past year -- 35 percent vs. 20 percent for Hispanics and 10 percent for whites -- with majorities of blacks saying they are treated less fairly than whites in dealing with police, in the courts, in local public schools or on the job.
Today's Question: Has the U.S. achieved Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of a colorblind society?
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