A majority of Americans give President Barack Obama credit for trying to make race relations better during his tenure — but 25 percent assert he's actually made things worse, a new study shows.
The Pew Research Center report released Monday found the following opinions among African Americans:
- 51 percent of blacks say Obama has made progress toward improving race relations
- 34 percent say he's tried but failed to make progress
- Only 5 percent of blacks say the president has made race relations worse.
Among whites:
- Only 28 percent think the president has improved race relations
- 24 percent say he's tried but failed
- 32 percent say he's made things worse.
Among all adults:
- 34 percent say Obama's made progress on race relations
- 28 percent say he's tried but failed
- 25 percent say he's made things worse.
When asked about their views of Black Lives Matter, the activist group that came to prominence after the 2014 shooting death of unarmed black teen Michael Brown by a white officer in Ferguson, Mo., 65 percent of blacks are supportive, including 41 percent who strongly support the group.
Among whites, about 40 percent say they support the Black Lives Movement at least somewhat.
The report also found different views from blacks and whites on progress toward equal rights, with 88 percent of blacks saying the United States has work to do to bring about equality, while 43 percent say they're wary changes will ever occur.
Fifty-three percent of whites say America has work to do to reach equality between blacks and whites.
The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.
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