Blacks becoming more optimistic on race relations
Survey traces feeling of progress to Obama victory
WASHINGTON - Despite African-Americans being hit especially hard by the bad economy, job losses, and the high rate of foreclosures, their assessment of race relations and prospects for the future has surged more dramatically during the past two years than at any time in the past quarter-century, according to a new poll.
In a survey of American racial attitudes released yesterday, researchers reported that the feeling of progress is driven largely by the election of President Obama, along with a greater sense of local community satisfaction and a more positive outlook. The majority of African-Americans say they are better off now than they were five years ago.
“These are dramatic findings,’’ said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, which conducted the study. “We expected that there may be an Obama effect, and it was really quite dramatic - which isn’t to say that this era as measured in this survey means that all is fine between blacks and whites.’’
Large majorities of blacks continue to say that the country needs to make more changes and that the problems rooted in the country’s history of slavery and segregation have not disappeared. But there are many indications that African-Americans believe there has been significant advancement.
Thirty-nine percent of blacks - nearly twice as many as in 2007 - say that the “situation of black people in this country’’ is better than it was five years earlier. That view holds among blacks of all age groups and income levels. Similarly, 56 percent of blacks and nearly two-thirds of whites say the standard-of-living gap between whites and blacks has narrowed in the past decade. Still, when asked about the problems facing black families, a majority said there were not enough jobs and there were too many problems with drugs, crime, and poor public education.
The 112-page report is based on a phone survey in November among a nationally representative sample of 2,884 adults, including 812 African-Americans. Pollsters attempted to root out Obama’s role in the changed attitudes and also look at the role race has played in how he is viewed.
For example, about half of voters interviewed by Pew just after the 2008 election said they expected that Obama’s election would lead to improved race relations, but fewer people today think it has. Among all adults, 36 percent now say the election made race relations better, while 13 percent said it made them worse and 43 percent say it has made no difference.
