(4) The protests on the streets of Washington, New York and other cities nationwide over the weekend painted a pretty grim picture of race relations in the United States. And a recent poll showed that a majority of Americans think race relations have actually gotten worse under President Obama. But although there is a huge amount of concern about the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers in recent months, this kind of unrest is still the exception rather than the rule. Although race relations have certainly taken a hit, on the whole they have been trending in a positive direction. And in fact, the vast majority of African Americans today view racial problems as something that occur in other peoples communities -- not their own. Gallup polling conducted last year showed that 81 percent of African Americans think their civil rights have either greatly or somewhat improved in their lifetimes. Just 7 percent said they have gotten worse. Far more say that civil rights have somewhat (52 percent) rather than greatly (29 percent) improved, but these numbers have gotten slightly better in recent years. (The 2013 poll, we would note, was conducted in June and July, during the trial in which George Zimmerman was later found not guilty of killing Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager.) The same Gallup poll showed that an increasing number of people -- both black and white -- expected not only that race relations would improve, but that they would eventually cease to be a problem in the country. Nearly half of blacks said they expected it would eventually be worked out. washingtonpost/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/12/15/people-say-they-think-race-relations-are-getting-worse-but-they-really-dont/
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 21:27:45 +0000
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