Majority of white Republicans attribute black economic disadvantage to lack of motivation

Evidence

Why is this gap so persistent? Why is it widening? Well, if you ask the political right, it’s because black Americans do not make the right choices and do not work hard enough. According to the 2016 General Social Survey (GSS), a majority of white Republicans (55 percent) agreed with the statement that black Americans are worse off economically “because most just don’t have the motivation or willpower to pull themselves up out of poverty,” compared with 26 percent of white Democrats. Forty-two percent of white Republicans thought black Americans were lazier than white Americans, and 26 percent rated black Americans as less intelligent. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 60