Prejudice by the numbers

Seeing this data makes me want to check out the most recent World Value Survey results.

Most racist country on earth?

Given a list are various groups of people, respondents were asked:

"Could you please mention any that you would not like to have as neighbors?"

3% of Americans selected "People of a different race."

World Values Survey (@WVS_Survey) 2017-2020. pic.twitter.com/p0tQ4la5eG

— Free Black Thought (@FreeBlckThought) December 12, 2021

Which are, as always, very interesting.

I have always observed that in the US, what is touted as race issues are almost entirely class issues.  Having lived in seven countries on five continents and having worked in a couple of dozen others for extended periods of time, I am confidently comfortable that the Anglophone countries are among the least racist in the world.

In the 2017-20 WVS, there is the data to support that.  Question 19 is: "On this list are various groups of people. Could you please mention any that you would not like to have as neighbors? Results for - People of a different race."  The results are here.

The worldwide results is that some 17% of people mentioned that they would be uncomfortable with a person of a particular race living next to them.  In the US, that number is 3%.  

Anglophone Countries average 3.5%

Australia - 3.9%

Canada - 4.5%

New Zealand - 2.7%

UK - NA

USA - 3.0%

Europe.  Regrettably, much of the European data is inaccessible.  The average for those available is 15%.

Andorra - 3.9%

Germany - 2.7%

Greece - 24.4%

Romania - 14.0%

Russia - 15.7%

Serbia - 29.4%

Of the 51 countries answering this question, only five countries (Argentina, Brazil, Germany, New Zealand, and Singapore) were more tolerant of race than the US.  33 countries had intolerance of a race next door in the double digits.  The least tolerant being Myanmar with 70% indicating that they would not wish to live next door to someone of a different race.

Setting race aside, are Americans tolerant of other attributes?

Drug addicts - US 89.5% opposed, World 82.6%

Race - US 3.0% opposed, World 16.7%

People with AIDS - US 12.3% opposed, World 41.4%

Immigrants/foreign workers - US 8.0%, World 22.1%

Homosexuals - US 12.7%, World 44.0%

Different Religion - US 2.6%, World 17.3%

Heavy drinkers - US 70.0%, World 68.2%

Unmarried couples - US 5.1%, World 25.1%

People speaking a different language - US 8.7%, World 16.2%

In most cases, the US is multiples more tolerant than most countries in the world.  We can always be better, but it is sometimes important to recall how tolerant we already are.

And in terms of the historical fracture points of race and religion, (3.0% and 2.6% respectively) we are at strikingly low levels, not just compared to others but even compared to the relatively recent past.