Survey: Mass. race relations still lacking

“And it is this basic theme that I would like to set forth this evening: We have come a long, long way, but we have a long, long way to go.”

On April 10, 1957, about three months shy of 50 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. took the stage at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis and said those words. He was delivering a speech, an eloquent and lengthy sermon entitled “A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations.” He talked about optimism, pessimism and realism, the three attitudes one could take in trying to answer the question of whether blacks had made any headway in the bloody, terrifying journey from segregation to equality.

As he looked out into the crowd of nearly 8,000 people, King wanted nothing more than to tell the assembled masses that the journey was almost over. That “old man segregation,” as he called the hateful practice, was ready to lie in his deathbed and, finally, pass on.

“But if we stopped here, we would be the victims of a dangerous optimism,” King said. “If we stopped here, we would be the victims of an illusion wrapped in superficiality.”

The best he could offer them was the truth. And the truth was: We have come a long, long way, but we have a long, long way to go.

Last month, UMass-Boston’s John D. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies released the results of a survey it had conducted in October and November. As part of the school’s Boston Diversity Project, which aims to conduct an in-depth, academic study of racial attitudes in greater Boston and Massachusetts, researchers surveyed 749 Massachusetts adults, taking statistically significant samples from all major racial groups, and asked them to rate the quality of race relations in Massachusetts.

The majority of state residents, regardless of color or ethnic background, rated the quality of race relations in Massachusetts as “fair” or “poor.” Blacks (75 percent) and Latinos (67.2 percent) were particularly likely to describe racial interactions with one of those two terms.

“Massachusetts has taken the significant step of electing our first African American governor, but it’s clear that race relations is a standing area of improvement our major institutions need to begin to confront,” said Steve Crosby, dean of the McCormack Graduate School.

Asians (46.6 percent) were most likely to qualify race relations as “good” or “very good.” Whites (40.4 percent) were roughly 10 percent more likely than Latinos (30 percent) to use those two terms, and doubled the amount of blacks (22 percent) that did so. Zero percent of African Americans surveyed chose the “very good” option.

Fifty years later, it seems that we still have a long, long way to go.

“We were not necessarily surprised but indeed troubled by the very different perspectives on race relations,” said Dr. Carol Hardy-Fanta, director of the McCormack Graduate School’s Program for Women in Politics & Public Policy and co-author of the survey. “When twice as many whites as blacks say race relations are good, it is clear that the experiences of the two groups must be dramatically different — and that there is not enough communication or interaction between the groups.”

According to the survey, most white and Asian respondents said they see “only a few” or no blacks or Latinos in their daily lives. Blacks and Latinos also associate mostly with people of their own race, although they are not as segregated as white state residents.

“Solving the very real socio-economic problems — including the remarkably high levels of discrimination — confronting blacks and Latinos in particular will be difficult without such communication or interaction,” said Hardy-Fanta.

But despite the seemingly dispiriting results, Hardy-Fanta pointed to several positives the survey revealed, such as data indicating that most whites, blacks, Latinos and Asians believe immigrants help rather than hurt the economy. Also, she noted, large segments of all groups care deeply about the critical issues of education and jobs.

“These may be areas where they again can achieve common ground for a better Massachusetts,” she said.

Some issues, such as participation in government, are more of a double-edged sword.

Very high percentages of those eligible to vote in the sample are registered to vote in Massachusetts (94.8 percent of whites, 91.2 percent of blacks, 80.9 percent of Asians and 79.1 percent of Latinos) and many whites (82 percent) and blacks (71 percent) actually exercised their right to cast a ballot in the past year. But very few of those polled believed in the government they were participating in — only 4 percent of whites and 8 percent of blacks had a great deal of confidence in state government, and just 14 percent of blacks had a great deal of confidence in local government.

Even though the survey’s results on the whole tell a sobering tale of how wide a chasm still exists between the races in Massachusetts, Hardy-Fanta believes that acknowledging how far we still have to go is the first step to traveling the distance.

“The most important message of this survey is how critical it is for the future of the Commonwealth for people from different races to come together to seek ways of closing the gaps — not only in perceptions, but also in lived experiences — that separate them,” said Hardy-Fanta. “Certainly Martin Luther King Jr. would have wanted to see more dialogue and working toward common purpose among people of all races in Massachusetts.”