Fewer see improvement in race relations

PRINCETON, NJ — By 35 percent to 23 percent, more Americans believe U.S. race relations have gotten better rather than worse with Barack Obama’s election as president. However, this positive tilt is not as strong as what Gallup found in October 2009, when 41 percent said relations had improved and 22 percent said they had gotten worse. Currently, the plurality of Americans, 41 percent, say race relations have not changed as a result of Obama’s presidency.

Just a day after Obama’s election as the nation’s first black president in November 2008, Gallup found the vast majority of Americans, 70 percent, predicting that race relations would get better as a result of his presidency. Prior to his election, in June-July 2008, 56 percent of Americans said race relations would get better if Obama were elected. This included 65 percent of Blacks and 54 percent of whites. Currently, 48 percent of Blacks and 31 percent of whites say race relations have gotten better under Obama.

Gallup finds even wider differences by party ID, with 46 percent of Democrats perceiving improvement in race relations, compared with 19 percent of Republicans. Young adults are a bit more upbeat than those 55 and older about the recent progress made on race relations.

Despite the decline since 2008 and 2009 in the percentage who view Obama’s election as having im­proved race relations, Ameri­cans as a whole are still optimistic that race relations will get better in the years ahead as a result of Obama’s presidency. Fifty-two percent hold this view, while 35 percent predict no change and 11 percent say race relations will get worse.

The poll also finds a decline in perceptions of Obama’s election as one of the most important advances for U.S. Blacks in the last 100 years: 42 percent say this today, fewer than the 58 percent who said so in 2009, and the 71 percent right after his election.

The decline is evident largely among whites, dropping nearly 20 percentage points from 56 percent in 2009 to 37 percent today, compared with a six-point decline among Blacks, 71 percent to 65 percent.

On balance, Americans, and particularly Blacks and Democrats, are more likely to believe the election of the nation’s first Black president has resulted in im­proved race relations rather than poorer relations. How­ever, the current 12-point national edge for optimists on this score is not as upbeat as Gallup found in Obama’s first year as president, and is a long way from the widespread optimism Ameri­cans expressed immediately after his election.

This article originally published in the August 29, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.