Study shows that the average white American has only one black friend

New research on racial diversity has uncovered a very telling statistic: the average white American has only one black friend.

According to data from Robert P. Jones of the Public Religion Institute, the average white American with one hundred friends has very little diversity in their friend circles. The average black American has more diversity but still a relatively small pool of different backgrounds.

Breaking this data down, it shows that 91 percent of the average white American's social circle is white and 83 percent of the average black American's social circle is black. This data is depressing no matter how the numbers are spun. It does help explain the huge chasm that exists between white and black Americans when discussing issues of race. The majority of both sides have difficulty empathizing with one another because many of them do not emotionally interact with each other on a daily basis.

Housing discrimination plays a major role in ensuring that the chasm never closes. The act itself is hard to prove, but the effects are devastating in several ways. In fact, the effects of housing discrimination are directly responsible for the numbers above. A study independent of the one cited above explains why the average white American has one black friend.

Discussing race without delving into the deliberate, successful attempts to segregate the different races is ultimately shortsighted. Almost every facet in society is affected by this issue. Sure it's an issue in small suburbs such as Ferguson, but Spike Lee has been rallying against gentrification in Brooklyn, New York as recently as this year.

Perhaps in order to change the "I have one black friend" line we should concentrate on changing the "I have one black neighbor" statistic.