Americans See Advantages and Challenges in Country’s Growing Racial and Ethnic Diversity

As the United States becomes more racially and ethnically diverse , and as companies from Wall Street to Silicon Valley grapple with how to build workforces that reflect these changing demographics, Americans have a complicated, even contradictory, set of views about the impact of diversity and the best way to achieve it.

While a majority values workplace diversity, few endorse the idea of taking race or ethnicity into consideration in hiring and promotions, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. A majority says children should go to local schools, even if that results in most schools being less diverse. Fewer say children should go to schools that are racially and ethnically mixed, even if that means students go to school outside of their local community.

Overall, white, black and Hispanic adults are about equally likely to say it’s good that the U.S. population is racially and ethnically mixed, and majorities across these groups say this has had a positive impact on U.S. culture. But black Americans place more value than whites and Hispanics on workplace diversity and school integration.

Source: Pew Research Center