By Louis Chan, AsAmNews National Correspondent
A new Pew Research Center study released this morning has found an overwhelming majority of Asian Americans feel they have been discriminated against.
75 percent of Asian Americans said they have felt the impact of discrimination. That compares to 76 percent of Blacks and 58 percent of Hispanics. 67 percent of Whites say they have never experienced discrimination.
“It was interesting that Asians are as likely as Blacks – and more likely than Hispanics – to say they have experienced discrimination or been treated unfairly because of their race or ethnicity,” Juliana Horowitz, Associate Director of Research at Pew, said to AsAmNews.
The survey result is in stark contrast of another recent survey, the Hill-HarrisX Poll, which found most don’t think Asian Americans experience a lot of discrimination.
Pew surveyed what it called an oversampling of 355 Asians. Researchers interviewed Asians only in English.
The poll went on to ask “when it comes to a person’s ability to get ahead in our country these days, being White helps, hurts, or neither helps or hurts. 72 percent of Asians said it helps, That’s more than 69 percent of Blacks, 61% of Hispanics, and 59 percent of White.
Asians are also more likely to say they’ve been subjected to slurs or jokes because of their race or ethnicity.
61 percent of Asians say they’ve been subjected to slurs or jokes. Blacks are the second most likely to say that at 52 percent, 46 percent of Hispanics and just 37 percent of Whites.
Most Black adults say being Black is extremely or very important to how they think about themselves. 54 percent of Asians feel their race or ethnicity is central to their identity.
More than half of Blacks, 52 percent, say being Black has hurt their ability to get ahead. Only 24 percent of Asians and Hispanics feel that way about their own race. Five percent of Whites feel the same way.
“We know that people often bring their own experiences into their views of national issues, and this likely accounts for at least some of the differences we see in the survey,” said Horowitz to AsAmNews.
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