A majority of white Americans have fundamental misconceptions about the economic circumstances of black Americans, according to a new national survey, with most saying that the average black is faring as well or better than the average white in such specific areas as jobs, education and health care. That's not true. Government statistics show that whites, on average, earn 60 percent more than blacks, are far more likely to have medical insurance and more than twice as likely to graduate from college. Most whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asian Americans said the black populafion, which is about 12 percent, was twice that size. Those whites with the most inaccurate ideas about the size of the minority populations were the most likely to say that further increases would be bad for the country.
People do misunderstand what the country is like.
And it is not a big leap to imagine that this may well affect the way people think about minorities, that it may lead to this idea that the country is being overrun.