问答题

The 1960s saw the great civil rights movement whose goals were to end segregation (种族隔离) laws completely and fight for the equal rights for the colored people. Many American blacks began to have a new mood. They declared that "black is beautiful", and the black community showed signs of unprecedented self-confidence. (46) Equally important, many black leaders began to disclaim full integration into the American mainstream as the goal of the black minority. (47) Instead, they argued, blacks ought to coexist with other groups in a plural society containing different and distinctive communities living in mutual respect.
The elimination of legal barriers to advancement has been a major gain for the blacks, but institutionalized discrimination is still rife. Housing, in particular, remains highly segregated: the great majority of blacks continue to live in neighborhoods that are overwhelmingly black, and most whites live in neighborhoods that are overwhelmingly white. (48) Busing and other programs aimed at integrating the schools have had some impact in innercity areas but have made virtually no difference to the segregation that exists between the predominantly black urban centers and the predominantly white suburbs and small towns that surround them. Median family income of blacks rose from $3,230 in 1960 to $10,142 in 1977, but the median income of white families rose at least as fast, and the income gap between the two groups has widened in recent years. (49) A major source of this differential is the fact that blacks tend to be barred from positions of authority over other workers, and are restricted instead to lower-paying jobs further down the work-place hierarchy. This factor alone accounts for about a third of the total black-white income gap.
(50) Race relations between black and white still leave much to be desired, although there is unmistakable evidence of some improvements in attitudes. However, there is a sharp divergence between the races on the question of how much progress has been made in ending discrimination. The majority of whites believe that there has been a lot of progress in getting rid of discrimination, but more than half of the blacks felt that there has not been much real change. Only less than 20% of the whites believe that many blacks miss out on jobs and promotion in their city because of discrimination. Many blacks are still pessimistic about progress in race relations.

Race relations between black and white still leave much to be desired, although there is unmistakable evidence of some improvements in attitudes.