Polls apart:

A 1990 New York Times/WCBS survey found 40% of the black middle class believed that AIDS, which has hit the black community much harder, was a white plot. Sixty-seven percent thought it might be true that the government "deliberately makes sure that drugs are easily available."

A 1992 Gallup/Newsweek poll found 31% of blacks believed criminal prosecutions against black officials were aimed at driving them from public life.

An October 1995 Washington Post poll found that a majority of whites believed blacks have better opportunities in jobs, housing, education and health than whites.

A 1994 Reader's Digest poll found 82% of whites thought America was the best place in the world to live. Seventy-four percent of blacks thought so.

Hard numbers:

Numbers in prison, jail, on probation
or parole, in 1994:
	black men: 30.2%
	black women: 4.8%
	white men: 6.7%
	white women: 1.4% 
(Source: The Sentencing Project/Associated Press)

Homicide victims per 100,000:
	black men: 72.0
	black women: 14.2
	white men: 9.3
	white women: 3.0  
(Source: U.S. Census Bureau)

Average annual unemployment rate:
	black males: 12%
	black women: 11%
	white men: 5.4%
	white women: 5.2% 
(Source: U.S. Census Bureau)

Percentage, age 18-64, living below 
official poverty line:
	black men: 20%
	black women: 32%
	white men: 7%
	white women: 10% 
(Source: U.S. Census Bureau)

Intermarriage:
   In 1994, there were 242,000 black-white
marriages, almost four times as many as in 1970. 
The Census Bureau is considering adding a
classification, "mixed", to its racial
classifications,to account for offspring
of such marriages.