Many hoped the election of the first black president would improve race relations in America, but six years into the administration of Barack Obama, a new poll shows them worsening.
According to a
Bloomberg Politics poll, 53 percent believe race relations have worsened under Obama, 36 percent think they are unchanged, and only 9 percent believe they have improved.
Only 45 percent of black people surveyed believe race relations have gotten worse, while 56 percent of white people do.
The reactions to two recent grand jury decisions involving police and black suspects show the divide widening. In both cases, unarmed black men were killed by white police officers.
In the Ferguson, Missouri case 52 percent of the public agreed with the grand jury decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
In Staten Island, New York, only 40 percent agreed with a grand jury that didn't indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of 43-year-old Eric Garner. Garner died of a heart attack after a police takedown, in which many described Pantaleo as employing a chokehold.
Broken down by race, 64 percent of whites and 4 percent of blacks either agreed or strongly agreed with the Ferguson decision. In the Staten Island case, only 32 percent of whites agreed or strongly agreed, and only 6 percent of blacks did.
Eighty-year-old Dale Griessel, a white retiree in Columbia, Missouri, told Bloomberg he will trust grand juries until he sees proof they aren't being honest.
"None of us has seen the forensic evidence. They have," he said.
Meanwhile, 28-year-old Delarno Wilson, who is black, said his Coast Guard assignments have been in mostly white towns, and he constantly has to worry about how to relate to people.
"That's something white people don’t have to think about," he said.
The poll talked to 1,001 adults and was conducted Dec. 3-5 by Selzer & Company of Des Moines, Iowa. The polls has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
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