Recent Polls Show Race Relations Have Gotten Better
Since the arrest, Gates has been rallying against racial profiling, and other prominent blacks have joined him as well.
"This arrest is indicative of at best police abuse of power or at worst the highest example of racial profiling I have seen," Reverand Al Sharpton told the Associated Press. "I have heard of driving while black and even shopping while black but now even going to your own home while black is a new low in police community affairs."
With the controversy in mind, we took a look at recently CBS News polls on race and discrimination.
In the summer of 2008, a CBS News/New York Times poll found that many African-Americans felt subjugated to such racial discrimination. Sixty-eight percent of African Americans said they had experienced a specific instant of discrimination whereas only 26 percent of whites said this as well. This reporting rate essentially remained constant from 2000.
July 2008 | February 2000 | |
Yes | 68% | 66% |
No | 32 | 33 |
Additionally, 43 percent of blacks felt they were stopped by police just because of their race. Only 7 percent of whites reported the same feeling.
Total | Whites | Blacks | |
Yes | 13% | 7% | 43% |
No | 86 | 93 | 57 |
DK/NA | 1 | 0 | 0 |
However, a CBS News/New York Times poll taken in April of this year found that, for the first time in CBS News Poll history, a majority of African Americans perceived relations between whites and blacks to be good. Fifty-nine percent of blacks said race relations in the U.S. are good, compared with only 29 percent who thought so less than a year ago.
Whites | Blacks | Whites | Blacks | |
Good | 65% | 59% | 55% | 29% |
Bad | 21 | 30 | 34 | 59 |
Some may conclude that the election of President Obama contributed to the change in attitude amongst African Americans. However, the poll conducted in April showed that 65 percent of whites and 59 percent of blacks said that race relations has not directly been effected by Mr. Obama's presidency.
Whites | Blacks | |
Gotten Better | 23% | 33% |
Gotten Worse | 7 | 5 |
Stayed Same | 65 | 59 |
Those who have seen an impact by Mr. Obama's election, the poll reports, were more likely to say that race relations have improved rather than deteriorated.
It is important to note that these positive assessments do not mean that African Americans perceive no discrimination. When asked who has a better chance of getting ahead in today's society, 51 percent said white people do, a response that has reoccurred since CBS News first began asking this question in 1997.
Whites | Blacks | |
White People | 26% | 51% |
Black People | 7 | 1 |
Both Equal | 62 | 44 |
Jennifer De Pinto, manager of election and survey information for CBS News, provided the polling data for this report.