Americans Say Race Relations Have Worsened Under Obama

President Barack Obama ran his historic election on the promise he would ease race relations, yet a majority of Americans — 53 percent — say interactions between the races are worse. Americans say relations between white and black communities have deteriorated since Obama took office, according to a new Bloomberg Politics poll.

The polling results are released amid two grand juries not to indict white police officers who killed unarmed black men in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y.

The poll of 1,001 U.S. adults was conducted Dec. 3-5 by Selzer & Company of Des Moines, Iowa. This particular pollster has a “stellar” rating according to PPD’s Pollster Scorecard, and the poll for the full sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Americans don’t think of the cases are remotely representative of the same set of injustices, as a majority agreed with the Ferguson decision, while most objected to the outcome in the Staten Island death. A grand jury declined to indict the police officer in the death of Eric Garner, who was resisting arrest when he was put in a supposed choke hold, though it was released before he began screaming he could not breathe.

A majority 52 percent say the grand jury got it right on Ferguson, compared with 25 percent who approved of the Staten Island decision.

What do you think about race relations under Obama?

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