The Continuing Significance of Race Revisited: A Study of Race, Class, and Quality of Life in America, 1972 to 1996

• Published in: American sociological review Vol. 63; no. 6; pp. 785 - 795
• Main Authors: Hughes, Michael, Thomas, Melvin E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Sociological Association 01.12.1998
• Subjects: African Americans; Anomia; Black American people; Black White Differences; Class; Comorbidity; Cultures and civilizations; Depression (Psychology); Drug Addiction; Drug Use; Ethnic relations. Racism; Happiness; Health surveys; History (1972-96); Life Satisfaction; Longitudinal studies; Marital Status; Mental disorders; National Surveys; Physical Health; Predictor Variables; Psychiatry; Psychopathology; Quality of Life; Race; Race Relations; Racial Differences; Racial discrimination; Racism; Resilience (Psychology); School surveys; Self esteem; Social Class; Social Classes; Social discrimination; Social indicators; Social Inequality; Social Life; Social Status; Social stratification; Social surveys; Social welfare; Socioeconomic factors; Socioeconomic Status; Sociology; Stereotypes; The Continuing Significance of Religion and Race; U.S.A; United States; United States of America; USA; Well being; Wellbeing; White people; Whites; United States Of America; United States > US; Quality of Life; Black people; Well-being; Racial Discrimination; Race; Inequality
• ISSN: 0003-1224; 1939-8271
• DOI: 10.2307/2657501

More than a decade ago, we (Thomas and Hughes 1986) demonstrated that the subjective well-being of African Americans in the United States was significantly and consistently lower than that for whites over the 14-year period from 1972 to 1985. Since then, evidence has accumulated on several important dimensions of well-being that African Americans fare as well as or better than whites, suggesting a change in the pattern observed for nearly 40 years. Using data from the General Social Survey (GSS) for the period 1972 to 1996, we show that quality of life continues to be worse for African Americans than it is for whites, although anomia and mistrust have increased a little more rapidly in recent years for whites than for blacks. Racial disparities in quality of life do not vary by and are not explained by socioeconomic status. Although racial inequality appears to be the primary cause of these differences, the exact processes producing them are as yet unknown.