Latent Prejudices

So there's a new poll of 2000 people that was conducted over a year about racial attitudes towards Black people. Here's an excerpt from the article:

"Given a choice of several positive and negative adjectives that might
describe blacks, 20 percent of all whites said the word "violent"
strongly applied. Among other words, 22 percent agreed with "boastful,"
29 percent "complaining," 13 percent "lazy" and 11 percent
"irresponsible." When asked about positive adjectives, whites were more
likely to stay on the fence than give a strongly positive assessment."

This is pretty sad. I don't know who to blame more for these views, which I know are widely held around the world. My first instinct was BET, (Black Entertainment Television). But maybe they are too easy a target? How about rappers? Or systematic oppresion via bad schools, unsafe neighborhoods, high unemployment, high incarceration rates? What about so called "black movies" like Friday, Boyz in the Hood, Soul Plane, American Gangster? Actually, when I saw American Gangster, I was almost embarrassed for Denzel because he's done such family oriented movies and is a very good role model for black men in his private life; you can tell he loves his wife and kids.  I'm not really passing judgment, but rather, trying to find answers. But most white people in Iowa or Nebraska won't watch BET or see American Gangster.

So what is it? Why are black people STILL viewed so negatively when we have a black man running for the highest office in the land? Maybe its the 6 O'clock news that always has some burglary or violent crime report and the picture of a person of color. I read yesterday that 97% of blacks will never commit a violent crime and 70% of all drug users and dealers are white but 80% of the convictions are people of color.

Lastly, "nearly four in 10 white independents agreed that blacks would be better off if they 'try harder'." 

What do you think about this Afropolitans out there, cause this affects you. Initially, many white people will still view you through the prism of prejudice  no matter how smart, well dressed, employed, smiley, friendly, or meek you are until you win them over.

This might be a good time to ask, do you think there is also a difference between the way African immigrants and African Americans are treated by whites? Its been my experience that white people veiw African immigrants (or 1st, 2nd, generation) as "less threatening". 

Thoughts?

Further reading: How Racims Works for Me