Study: Workplace and Community Engagement Key to Interracial Friendship: While the number of Americans reporting someone of another race among their “very close friends” has risen 6 percent over the last 20 years, interracial, close friendships are still rare in the lives of most Americans.
Professor Xavier de Souza Briggs, the lead researcher of a new Massachusetts Institute of Technology study on interracial friendships, says that people who are involved in community organizations and activities and who socialize with their co-workers are much more likely to have friends of another race than those who do not.
The study, completed in 2000, questioned some 30,000 people on their patterns of civic engagement. It reveals that regardless of race, people with higher incomes and more education were more likely to be civic “joiners,” people who get involved in community organizations and activities. High levels of income and education almost ensured that people’s social circles would include those of other racial backgrounds.
The communities covered by the survey range from small and relatively homogeneous cities, such as Lewiston, Maine, to big cities, such as Los Angeles, that are among the most ethnically diverse places in the world.
