extensive report on british and american racial attitudes shows two countries in close alignment
the most extensive comparison of british and american racial attitudes over the last 50 years has found a softening of prejudice, creating the conditions necessary for a black prime minister to emerge in the uk.
a joint study conducted by harvard and manchester universities has found a "deepening tide of tolerance" in the attitudes of both americans and britons.
ed fieldhouse, the study's co-author and executive director of manchester's institute for social change, said: "the good news is that in terms of the underlying attitudes of the majority, britain is in the same place as the united states. whether it is willingness to work for a black boss or to welcome a non-white person into the family, majority british opinion – just like majority american opinion – is gradually getting more tolerant."
the project's team includes the guardian's tom clark and the american academic robert putnam, whose book bowling alone catalogued the decrease in american civic engagement and the benefits of "social capital" or social networks to both individuals and communities.
the authors have analysed all available polling from the two countries, including 50-year gallup series and the poll series british social attitudes. they have been able to show that since the 1980s the proportion of whites who admit to discomfort at the idea of a black person marrying into the family has been falling in both nations by around two percentage points each year. in the uk, since the 80s, the percentage of people who object to a black boss has fallen by half from 20% to 10% – a similar decrease to that in america. last week, tidjane thiam was appointed the first black chief executive of the prudential financial service company.
though there is little polling on attitudes to black politicians available in the uk, researchers point to an increase in the number of americans saying they are willing to vote for a black candidate – from 53% in 1967 to 94% today. given the pattern of change is similar in the uk and us on other variables, the reports' authors argue that the uk may now be ready for a black prime minister.
but the study also bears out the fears of senior british figures including trevor phillips, the chair of the equalities and human rights commission, that the lack of routes into politics for black british candidates still means the uk lags behind america in the number of black and ethnic-minority politicians.
putnam said that the uk had not yet gone through either of the two steps barack obama referred to as the moses and joshua generation, the moses generation being black politicians representing black areas, and the joshua generation being black politicians serving non-black areas.
putnam said: "change is taking a similar form on both sides of the atlantic: exactly as in the us, the generation of britons uncomfortable with non-whites in positions of power or intimacy is gradually dying off, and being replaced by its more tolerant offspring.
"it is fair to add, however, that the smaller minority population in the uk, as well as the much shallower pool of black politicians and the more centralised political recruitment paths, still tends to work against black representation in britain."
obama was elected in the wake of a sustained rise in the number of black elected officials in the us that can be traced back over several decades.
though the report shows some improvement in minority participation in local politics in the uk, with the total number roughly doubling since the "very low level of the 80s", the authors show this to have stagnated recently.
they conclude: "its recent failure to grow has less to do with racial prejudice than the fading fortunes of labour. non-whites are six times better represented among that party's councillors than among than the conservatives, and the pattern in all recent local elections has been for labour to lose seats."
调查显示，英国已准备好迎接一位黑人首相
广泛调查显示英美两国在种族态度上密切一致
这份50年来最大规模的比较调查表明英美两国的种族偏见正在软化，此结论为一位黑色皮肤的首相出现在英国创造了可能性。
该调查由美国哈佛大学和英国曼彻斯特大学联合发起，调查发现美英两国人的种族观有“越发宽容的趋势”。
“好消息是现在多数英国人的根本态度和美国人一样。至于他们愿不愿意为一个黑人老板效力、或是欢迎一个有色人种加入他们的家庭，他们的态度——和美国人一样——也正逐渐变得更加宽容。”这项调查的合著者之一，曼彻斯特大学社会变迁研究院的常务董事爱德华·菲尔德豪斯说。
研究组的成员还包括《卫报》的汤姆·克拉克以及美国学者罗伯特·普特南，后者著有《獨自打保齡》一书，该书列举了美国公众社交减少的状况以及“社会资本”或称关系网对个人和社群的诸多益处。
研究者们分析了两国所有可得的选票，包括50年份的盖洛普民意调查和英国社会态度调查。得到从上世纪80年底起，承认会因黑人加入家庭感到不适的白人比例每年在英美两国都要下降约两个百分点。英国从80年代起反感黑人老板的人口比例下降了一半，从20%到10%——美国也是近似的比例。就在上周，蒂贾内·蒂亚姆被美国保德信金融服务公司任命为首位黑人ceo。
虽然这些选票中对黑人能否在英国从政鲜有表态，研究者们还是拿出了美国的数据来类推。他们指出美国人愿意为一位黑人总统候选人投票的比例从1967 年的53%上升到了今天的94%，鉴于这一模型的其它变量均存在类似现象，研究者们认为英国现在应该也已准备好迎接一位黑人首相。
但研究同时也证实了一些英国高层人物的担忧，其中包括平等和委员会主席特雷弗·菲利浦斯，他认为英国黑人候选人缺乏门路进入政坛的状况仍然表明了英国的黑人和少数族裔的政客数量尚落后于美国。
普特南说，英国还没有经历奥巴马提到的作为“摩西时代和约书亚时代”这两步中的任何一步，摩西时代指的是黑人政治家代表黑人选区，约书亚时代指黑人政治家同样能够为非黑人选区服务。
普特南说：“相似类型的变化正在大西洋两岸同时进行：和美国的情况完全一样，这一代的英国人对黑人掌权或与他们自己保持亲密关系的不适感正在逐渐消亡，他们正在被更为宽容的下一代取代。”
“然而，实事求是的讲，英国为数不多的少数族裔人口，极少数的黑人政治家、以及更为集中的政治准入途径等现状，仍然表明这个国家还太不乐意被一个黑人代表。”
奥巴马的当选正值美国的黑人官员数量持续上升之际，这种趋势在美国已经有几十年了。
尽管报告显示英国的少数族裔在参与地方政治方面已有了一些提高，整体数字与“极低的80年代”相比几乎翻了一番，但研究者们表明，该数字在最近一段时间里一直停滞不前。