The majority of white Americans feel discriminated against, a new poll has revealed.
When asked if they felt their race was the victim of discrimination as part of an NPR poll, 55 percent of white people answered yes.
Of those, almost 20 percent said they had lost out of jobs because they were white and 11 percent said they believed it cost them their place at college.
The poll results, which were released on Tuesday, ‘reinforce the resentment’ of white voters without college educations who voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election, experts said.
The survey questioned 902 white people between January and April this year.
The majority of white Americans say they feel discriminated against because of their race and that it has sometimes cost them jobs (file image)
Many respondents said that while racism against white people exists, they themselves have not fallen victim to it.
Their argument was that white people are ‘automatically thrown into that group as being a bigot and a racist and that somehow you perceive yourself to being more superior to everybody else,’ according to Tim Musack, one of those questioned who said while anti-white racism exists, he himself had never fallen victim to it.
Experts said the results echoed the sentiment of white voters who elected Trump last year on the basis that they felt previous governments had left them behind.
‘I think this does reinforce a lot of the resentment you saw in the 2016 election, especially among white, working-class voters lacking a college degree,’ David Cohen, a political scientist at the University of Akron said.
Others laughed at the notion that white people could be victims of discrimination.
‘I don’t see how we can be discriminated against when, when we have all the power. Look at Congress. Look at the Senate.
‘Look at government on every level. Look at the leadership in corporations. Look. Look anywhere.
‘The notion that whites are discriminated against just seems incredible to me,’ retired teacher Betty Holton, of Elkton, Maryland, said.
The majority of white people questioned – 61 percent – said the discrimination lay not in policies or government but in the attitudes of individuals.
In accompanying studies, people from every race included in the poll said they felt discriminated against.
Experts said the poll results ‘reinforced the resentment’ of white voters who elected Donald Trump last year after feeling left behind by former administrations (Trump is seen above at a campaign rally last November)
The response was overwhelming from African America, 92 percent of whom said they were victims of race-based discrimination.
Seventy-eight percent of Latinos questioned gave the same answer as did 75 percent of Native Americans and 61 percent of Asian Americans.
Of all the groups, the percentage of white Americans who feel targeted was the lowest.
Ninety-percent of LGBTQ participants said they too feel discriminated against.
The same answer was given by the majority of other groups.
Native Americans felt the most discriminated against by laws and government policies with 39 percent saying they were targeted in that way.