Discrimination high toward Hispanics, poll finds

WASHINGTON — Who's discriminated against in America? More people say Hispanics than blacks or women — and it's far from just Hispanics who feel that way.

An Associated Press-Univision Poll found that 61 percent of people overall said Hispanics face significant discrimination, compared with 52 percent who said blacks do and 50 percent who said women.

The survey also underscored how perceptions of prejudice can vary by ethnicity. While 81 percent of Latinos said Hispanics confront a lot or some discrimination, a smaller but still substantial 59 percent of non-Hispanics said so.

It is not unusual for members of a group to feel they face more prejudice. In this survey, that was especially true when people were asked about "a lot" of discrimination. Fifty-five percent of Hispanics but only 24 percent of non-Hispanics said Hispanics encounter that.

"I see it in people's faces, in the way they react," said Raymond Angulo, 66, a Mexican-born U.S. citizen and retiree from Pico Rivera, Calif. "It's gotten somewhat better, but it's still there. I feel like it's never going away."

However, Jason Welty, a lawn-care specialist in Indianapolis who is not Hispanic, said he has seen little evidence of the problem despite working frequently with Hispanics.

"They're treated by most of our clients and the people we work with just like anybody else," said Welty, 30.

The AP-Univision Poll compiled the views of 901 Hispanics, which were compared with the results of a separate AP-GfK survey of the general population.

Attention on whether Latinos face unfair treatment has intensified since last month, when Arizona enacted a law requiring local police to ascertain the citizenship of people they suspect of being in the U.S. illegally.

President Barack Obama called the statute "misdirected" Wednesday at a joint news conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, and he said the Justice Department will soon complete a review of whether it violates civil rights laws. But others have rallied behind the statute as a needed step with an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.

Lisa Navarrete, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, the Hispanic advocacy organization, said the poll's findings suggest a silver lining in the country's often bitter debate over immigration.

"For a lot of people, regardless of how they feel about what we should do about immigration, they're recognizing that this community has been singled out and targeted," Navarrete said.