Race relations in America: Status quo

by Mark Silva

Most Americans believe that a solution to the nation's problems in race-relations will eventually be resolved - a level of optimism that is essentially unchanged from a year ago, just before the election of the first African-American president, Barack Obama.

In fact, the reading on this question, as measured by the Gallup Poll, rests at about the same level recorded when Gallup first asked the question in December of 1963. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed see hope - 55 percent did four decades ago.

"In short, despite all that has happened in the intervening decades, there is scarcely more hope now than there was those many years ago that the nation's race-relations situation will be solved,'' writes Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of The Gallup Poll. "Still, the similarity between attitudes in 1963 and 2009 masks a good deal of movement on this measure in the intervening years.

Among black Americans surveyed, optimism about an eventual solution to race-relations problems actually has decreased since last summer - from 50 to 42 percent.

The all-time low in Gallup's measure of hope for improved race relations - 29 percent - was recorded in October 1995, shortly after a Los Angeles jury acquitted O.J. Simpson of murder. By last summer, Newport notes, "when there was general recognition that a black man, Barack Obama, would receive the Democratic nomination for president, the percentage of Americans believing in an eventual solution to the race problem had risen to 58 percent.

The day after Obama's electoral victory over Republican John McCain, the percentage of Americans voicing a positive view on the race-relations question jumped to 67 percent.

"Now, about a year after Obama's election, optimism that a solution to the country's race problem will eventually be worked out has settled back down to 56 percent,'' Newport reports. "This certainly remains higher than in a number of previous years, particularly at points in the 1990s. But the current reading is not significantly improved from the sentiment that prevailed in more recent years prior to Obama's election.

While the majority of white Americans are optimistic about a solution to race relations, the majority of blacks surveyed are not. "Blacks are decidedly more pessimistic about equal job opportunities for blacks than are whites,'' Newport adds.

Even after Obama had essentially clinched the Democratic nomination last year, Gallup polling found that 56 percent of Americans believed that there was still widespread racism against blacks in the U.S. That percentage has now dropped to 51 percent - with both black and white Americans seeing improvement.

"Despite the election of the first black president in U.S. history, Americans' optimism about a solution to the race problem in the U.S. and their views about the prevalence of racism against blacks are not substantially more positive now than they have been in previous years,'' Newport concludes.

"Blacks remain significantly more negative than whites about their status in society and about the potential for an eventual solution to the race problem,'' he reports. "The data do not suggest that blacks have become disproportionately more positive than whites as a result of Obama's election as president.''

The survey of 1,521 adults conducted Oct. 16-19 carries a possible margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. With 408 blacks include, the possible margin of error in attitudes among African-Americans is 6 percentage points. With 933 non-Hispanic whites surveyed, the margin for white attitudes is 4 percent.

For more on views about race relations, see the Gallup Poll.