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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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1992-08-28
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NATION, Page 25American NotesETHNICITYWatch Out For Wisians
Once you let the Wisians in, the neighborhood goes to pot.
That might be one conclusion of a study of polling data on ethnic
attitudes sponsored by the American Jewish Committee. About
1,500 Americans were asked to rank the social standing of 58
groups, from Italians to Chinese. "Wisians" were added as a
fictitious entry to help gauge the responses.
While 61% of the respondents said they didn't know enough
about Wisians to rank them, the rest expressed no qualms about
giving them a relatively low rating: 4.12 on a 9-point social
scale. "Many people ranked them low because they thought they
were strange sounding," says Tom Smith, director of the General
Social Survey, adding that some of those questioned in the
surveys may have assumed that Wisians hailed from a small Slavic
nation in eastern Europe.
The Wisians' mixed reviews were an exception to a trend
toward greater tolerance among Americans. Blacks (4.17) and
Spanish Americans (4.79) are still rated well below, say, the
British (6.46), but their standings have improved by as much as
41% since 1964, the survey's first year. "Younger generations
have learned to judge people not by race and ethnicity," Smith
says, "but as individuals." Unless those individuals just happen
to be Wisian.