President Barack Obama said "we are not as divided as we seem" in the wake of July's mass shooting in Dallas, but according to multiple polls compiled by Rasmussen Reports, voters disagree.
Surveys show likely voters believe life for young black Americans has gotten:
- Worse: 41 percent
- Better: 13 percent
Voters also said race relations since President Barack Obama's 2008 election have grown:
- Worse: 60 percent
- Better: 9 percent
Asked in September 2015 if Obama brought Americans of different races closer together, likely voters said:
- Closer together: 20 percent
- Further apart: 47 percent
"This is certainly the worst political climate that I've seen in my lifetime, but on some level the violence and hatred have always been around," Peniel Joseph, founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the University of Texas at Austin's Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, told The Washington Post.
According to Rasmussen, black Americans are more likely than whites and other minorities to think the justice system and economy are tilted against them, that they are treated more unfairly by police, and that the U.S. has not reached the level of equality once envisioned by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A similar polls from CBS News shows Americans have grown pessimistic about race relations in recent years.