Poll: Young, white Americans are happier
Poll finds minorities ages 13-24 still challenged by racism in their lives
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - From their relationships to their jobs to their money — even from they time they first roll out of bed — young white Americans are happier with life than their minority counterparts.
According to an extensive survey of 1,280 people ages 13-24 by The Associated Press and MTV, 72 percent of whites say they are happy with life in general, compared with 51 percent of Hispanics and 56 percent of blacks.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” said Martin Carpenter, 21, a black New Jersey resident. “There’s a lot of issues out there for African-American young adults. You can still go to certain places and feel uncomfortable, like you don’t belong there.”
Martin’s feeling about racism, real or perceived, was echoed in the survey: 28 percent of minorities believe race will hurt them in the quest for a better life. Among whites, 20 percent feel their race will help in getting ahead.
Destiny Brown, 17, a black Virginia high school student, said she has friends who were already passed over for work simply because their names sounded different: “I know sometimes your name — people will give you a hard time when you try to get a job.”
The difference in levels of happiness is not always stark, but it’s consistent. Among whites, 67 percent usually wake up happy in the morning; for minorities, the figure is 61 percent.
Those numbers extend into all aspects of life
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The only thing that gives
The only thing that gives these happy white folks the blues are the black folk they have to work with and encounter on a daily basis. I'm serious; this is how a lot of white people I work with make sense of issues relating to personal happiness or what they feel is right or wrong with the world. Everything is right with the world until something favorable happens to a black person, whether it might be making a good sale, talking to an attractive white woman, or having something in the future to look forward to.