Mar 8, 4:08 AM ES
By The Associated Press
The Associated Press poll on the public's feelings about affirmative action
is based on telephone interviews with 1,013 randomly selected adults from all
states except Alaska and Hawaii. The interviews were conducted Feb. 28-March
4 by ICR/International Communications Research of Media, Pa.
The results were weighted to represent the population by key demographic factors such as age, sex, region and education.
In the poll, no more than one time in 20 should chance variations in the sample cause the results to vary by more than 3 percentage points from the answers that would be obtained if all Americans were polled.
This margin of error is larger for responses of subgroups, such as income categories. There are other sources of potential error in polls, including the wording and order of questions.
The AP poll questions:
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1. Do you think affirmative action programs that provide advantages or preferences
for blacks, Hispanics and other minorities in hiring, promoting and college
admissions should be continued, or do you think these affirmative action programs
should be abolished?
-Should be continued, 53 percent
-Should be abolished, 35 percent
-Don't know-refused, 12 percent
2. On the same topic, do you think affirmative action programs are needed today to help minorities such as black and Hispanics overcome discrimination, or are they not needed today?
-Needed, 51 percent
-Not needed, 43 percent
-Don't know-refused, 6 percent
3. How important do you think it is for a college to have a racially diverse student body - that is a mix of blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics and other minorities? Is it very important, somewhat important, not too important or not at all important?
-Very important, 50 percent
-Somewhat important, 30 percent
-Not too important, 10 percent
-Not at all important, 10 percent
4. How close do you think we are to eliminating discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities in America once and for all: Are we very close, fairly close, not too close, not close at all?
-Very close, 8 percent
-Fairly close, 30 percent
-Not too close, 35 percent
-Not close at all, 24 percent
-Don't know-refused, 3 percent
5. Thinking about the effects of racism and affirmative action on this country, which do you think is a bigger problem today, blacks and Hispanics losing out because of racism or whites losing out because of affirmative action?
-Blacks, Hispanics losing out, 44 percent
-Whites losing out, 30 percent
-Don't know-refused, 26 percent