Poll: Americans Think Race Relations Are Worse Under Obama

President Barack Obama greets troops and their families on Christmas Day, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2014, at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii during the Obama family vacation. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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A plurality of Americans believe that race relations are worse under President Barack Obama, according to a new poll.

The Al Jazeera-Monmouth University poll found that 43 percent of Americans think race relations are worse under Obama, 40 percent said there had been no change and 15 percent said they were better.

Along party lines, 62 percent of Republicans said that race relations had gotten worse under Obama, while only 4 percent said better. Among Democrats, the numbers were more evenly split: 45 percent said no change, 28 percent said better and 25 percent said worse.

On whether Obama had spoken too much or too little on race during his presidency, 28 percent said he had been too quiet, 25 percent said he had been too outspoken and 39 percent said he had struck the right balance.

More than half of Americans, though, said racial and ethnic discrimination remained a big problem in the United States: 51 percent. Another 30 percent said it was a smaller problem, and only 18 percent said it wasn’t a problem at all.

The poll, conducted Jan. 13 to 15, surveyed 1,003 U.S. adults. Its margin of error is 3.1 percentage points.

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