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)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

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.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for estamm estamm says:

    In reality, they are probably roughly the same. The change is that the racists in this country now don’t care about making those views publicly known. They believe that spewing their garbage is ok as long as it is directed at the president. It gives it the air of being political, when it is just more racist garbage.

  2. Avatar for dnl dnl says:

    Of course, it’s worse…

    President Obama embodies the ‘uppity-ness’ that galls the haters of minorities.

  3. Most Americans have an IQ of 100 or below, so…

  4. Another thing for republicans to voice a negative about when it comes to Obama.

  5. OK, and…so what?

    Since when has the president been responsible for “race” relations?

    Oh thaaaat’s right, much of the white majority of this country thinks The Other has to answer for everything blacks do and everything that happens to them, because he is (in their own words) “half-black”. Curious how they don’t believe it should work in the reverse.

    How about this, instead – since whites control the vast majority of power, clout, and money in this country, perhaps THEY might be responsible for the state of “race” relations?? Being as, you know, they’re the ones in the position to change things unilaterally…if they wished.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

73 more replies

Participants

Avatar for daled Avatar for doremus_jessup Avatar for caffinatedone Avatar for scavok Avatar for srfromgr Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for ncsteve Avatar for jdkahler Avatar for foundryman Avatar for sundancer Avatar for ctvoter Avatar for lamonth Avatar for sniffit Avatar for jkrogman Avatar for deputydawg Avatar for candirue Avatar for markpkessinger Avatar for captaincommonsense Avatar for dickweed Avatar for dnl Avatar for jinnj Avatar for meta Avatar for AquaMadMan Avatar for answerthis

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: