Hispanics and asian americans are more optimistic about the future than african americans

According the nation’s first multilingual poll of Asian Americans, Blacks, and Hispanics, the predominantly immigrant populations of Hispanics and Asians in the United States are far more optimistic about their lives than are African Americans.

Asian and Hispanic respondents reported that they believe that hard work is rewarded in this society, but more than 60 percent of African Americans reported that they do not believe that the American Dream works for them and that they feel more segregated from the rest of America than Asians and Hispanics.

The poll also found that:

• Sixty-six percent of Black respondents disagree with the notion that every American has an equal opportunity to succeed, while a majority of Hispanics and Asians agree with the notion.

• Blacks overwhelmingly believe that the criminal justice system favors the rich and powerful while most Hispanics and Asians disagree.

Expert pollsters who contributed to the research report indicated that they believe that one reason why Blacks are less optimistic is because they feel that they are being left out of the American Dream and being displaced by new immigrants.

As this poll suggests that Blacks have a less optimistic view of their future, let me suggest this: in comparison with immigrant Hispanics and Asians, it may very well be that Blacks have a more realistic (instead of somewhat pessimistic) view of the future. You see, the difference between the views of African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians is based in frame of reference. The African American frame of reference is based on current economic realities and past history. The immigrant Asian and Hispanic frame of reference is based in the realities of the nations they left behind.

Consider this: if an immigrant Hispanic or Asian comes from a nation where he cannot voice his own opinion, where a government is tyrannical, and where there are little or no opportunities for life improvement, a stable career, access to capital, and upward mobility— he really has no choice but to be optimistic about the future, particularly when he moves to one of the richest and most opportunity filled nations in the world.

American Blacks on the other hand, have had to endure burdensome struggles in this great nation by virtue of being born a different color than the majority. Putting all of the atrocities committed against Blacks in the last two centuries aside, study after study demonstrates that African Americans bear a much greater burden than most Americans. Blacks in the US must endure the vicious cycle that begins with fewer educational opportunities, which leads to less high-end employment opportunities, which leads to lower salaries and wages, which leads to less access to capital and less educational opportunities, thus perpetuating this vicious cycle.

I am not saying that Blacks should not be optimistic about their futures— as a matter of fact, the poll itself found that strong majorities of Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics are optimistic about the future and believe that racial tensions will ease over the next 10 years. I am just pointing out the fact that we should understand the reasoning behind things (by examining why Blacks are less optimistic than their Hispanic and Asian counterparts), rather than just automatically accepting the results of polls and studies at face value.

Because by understanding why different minority groups feel the way they do about certain issues, we can learn to help them advance and move forward together as a diverse and optimistic nation.