
In the United States, public recognition of racial inequities and the impact of systemic racism—despite mounting evidence—is fading.
Living through a global pandemic and high-profile racial injustices has not fundamentally shifted how many view the impacts of systemic racism on the health and economic well-being of people of color.
COVID-19 has upended the lives of people living in the United States, but some groups are facing more challenges than others. This national survey from RAND Corporation attempts to understand the views and values of those who are most at risk to the adverse impacts of COVID-19 by surveying people with lower and middle incomes with a focus on communities of color. It measures the attitudes of the same group of respondents over a year with four waves of collection. For the first and final waves, a nationally representative sample of adults was surveyed in addition to the targeted sample.
In the summer of 2020, when calls for racial justice and the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 were on full display, some speculated that the country seemed to be at a turning point for acknowledging how much racism affects people’s health and economic well-being. But the data suggest that was a moment in time, not a seismic shift or enduring change in perceptions. A little more than a year later, recognition of health and economic disparities declined significantly, but when breaking the findings down by race, people of color see things differently. Among the targeted sample of those with lower and middle incomes, Black and Latino respondents continue to be more likely to recognize inequities than White respondents.
People are more likely to see social and economic inequities than racial inequities.For instance, most people surveyed are more likely to cite having a low income and living in a rural area as barriers to accessing healthcare than being Black or Latino.
There are reasons to be hopeful. More than two-thirds of respondents believe the pandemic presents a moment for positive change. With the pandemic still looming, 1 in 4 people see improving access to healthcare as the change they would most like to see. And most people are supportive of sending extra vaccine supplies to other countries.