🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
More than half of Black Americans believed their race puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to opportunity and access to higher education in the U.S., according to a new poll.
The survey, which released by Axios/Ispos poll Saturday, found that 51 percent of Black Americans feel their race hurts them when it comes to accessing higher education, while only 5 percent believes it puts them at an advantage. In comparison, just 9 percent of white respondents said they believe their race puts them at a disadvantage.
Furthermore, the poll found that Asian, Black and Hispanic Americans are more likely to say colleges and universities reflect white people's views than those of people of color. Overall, 48 percent of Asian Americans, 43 percent of Black Americans, and 39 percent of Hispanic Americans said colleges are biased toward white values and beliefs, while just 31 percent of white Americans held the same view.
Meanwhile, white people – especially Republicans – were more likely to say such institutions favor more liberal beliefs.
"If conservatives think they're being excluded and minorities feel they're being excluded, is this the next flashpoint?" said Cliff Young, president of Ipsos U.S. Public Affairs, according to Axios.
Despite those findings, the poll found that white respondents were four times more likely than Black respondents to say affirmative action – or an admissions process that gives favorable consideration to applicants from disadvantaged communities – is discriminatory against white Americans.
Additionally, just 43 percent of white respondents said higher education should keep making changes to give students of other colors equal opportunities. In contrast, 65 percent of Asian Americans, 67 percent of Hispanic Americans, and 81 percent of Black Americans said the same.
"Everyone believes in higher education to get ahead. But it's all about means and access. People of color have always felt they've been excluded, haven't had access. And now you have white Americans who'd always had access and now feel that ease of access has been threatened," Young said, according to Axios.
But across every racial and ethnic group, the poll found that a majority of respondents said they would support making four-year college or university educations free to all U.S. citizens. That was true for 51 percent of white Americans, 66 percent of Asian Americans, 71 percent of Hispanic Americans and 78 percent of Black Americans.
The survey was conducted August 11-18 using a nationally representative probability sample of 1,992 general population adults age 18 or older. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.
