Small Reason For Optimism On American Race Relations

By Stephanie Czekalinski

Updated: April 19, 2012 | 3:13 p.m.
April 19, 2012 | 2:04 p.m.

Overall race relations in the United States may still be fraught, according to a poll released today by the University of Phoenix and the National Journal, but Americans are now interacting with more people of different backgrounds than before.

 
Those deepening links offer reason to believe American race relations will improve, said Paul Taylor, director of the Pew Hispanic Center at an event at the Newseum this morning to mark the release of the poll.
 
He pointed to once area, the American family, where things were changing quickly. In 1961, only about 0.1 percent of marriages were between people of different races, he said. By 2010, fully 15 percent of in the United States marriages were interracial. 
 
"The human heart is the last frontier," said Taylor.

Overall race relations in the United States may still be fraught, according to a poll released today by the University of Phoenix and the National Journal, but Americans are now interacting with more people of different backgrounds than before. 

Those deepening links offer reason to believe American race relations will improve, said Paul Taylor, director of the Pew Hispanic Center at an event at the Newseum this morning to mark the release of the poll. He pointed to once area, the American family, where things were changing quickly.

In 1961, only about 0.1 percent of marriages were between people of different races, he said. By 2010, fully 15 percent of in the United States marriages were interracial.  

"The human heart is the last frontier," said Taylor.

 

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