According to the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to conducting independent research at the intersection of religion, culture and public policy,
Few opinions are formed and few experiences occur in isolation. Rather, Americans’ social environments—including siblings, spouses, parents, or close friends—play a critical role in shaping how they view and understand the world around them. These social networks can vary considerably, including by racial and ethnic background, political leanings, and […]
In the PRRI report “Race, Religion, and Political Affiliation of Americans’ Core Social Networks, PRRI found that 75% of whites in America do not have non-white friends. This face spurred the Come Meet A Black Person Networking Event in November 2017.
According to the report,
The homogeneity of a particular core social network—that is, the percentage of Americans with social networks that are entirely comprised of people from the same racial or ethnic background—also varied according to race and ethnicity. Fully three-quarters (75%) of white Americans report that the network of people with whom they discuss important matters is entirely white, with no minority presence, while 15% report having a more racially mixed social network. Approximately two-thirds (65%) of black Americans report having a core social network that is composed entirely of people who are also black, while nearly one-quarter (23%) say their network includes a mix of people from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. Less than half (46%) of Hispanics report that their social network includes only other people who also identify as Hispanic, while more than one-third (34%) report having a mixed social network. Notably, nearly one-in-ten (9%) Hispanics report having an all-white core social network.
The goal of the Come Meet A Black Person Movement is to change these statistics, one friend at a time because we are willing to start the healing. Read the entire Race, Religion, and Political Affiliation of Americans’ Core Social Networks report by PRRI below.
