Half of Americans say racism is ‘big problem' in US: Poll
The majority of Americans say racism is a problem in US society today and believe racial tensions are rising between ethnic groups in the country, according to a new nationwide poll.
The poll, conducted by CNN and the Kaiser Family Foundation and released Wednesday, found that 49 percent of American people view racism as “a big problem.”
The number marks a huge increase over a four year period, when roughly a quarter of the American public deemed racism as a cause for concern. Only 28 percent of Americans viewed racism as such in 2011.
In the poll, the percentage of people who said they view racism as a big problem was higher among racial and ethnic minorities than it was among whites.
About two-thirds of African Americans and Hispanics who were surveyed, said racism is a big problem, while only 43 percent of whites said the same thing.
In every American demographic group surveyed, however, there were increasing percentages of people who said racial tensions have increased in the US during the past 10 years.
The study also found that white Americans prefer the company of people of the same race. About seven in 10 whites said they lived or socialized with people who were mostly of the same race as them. Six in 10 employed whites also said that they have co-workers who are mostly white.
"After the 1960s and early 1970s, somehow we developed the mythology that systemic racism disappeared," say Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, a professor of sociology at Duke University in North Carolina.
Racism remained, according to Bonilla-Silva, but became more covert. "The main problem nowadays is not the folks with the hoods, but the folks dressed in suits.”
"New racism" has been decades in the making, he says.
The latest poll comes amid heightened tesions over several high-profile killings of unarmed African Americans by white police officers in the last two years that has triggered protests across the country.
Widespread demonstrations have taken place in Chicago this week following the release of a video showing last year’s shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by a white police officer.
The black teenager was shot 16 times for at least 15 seconds by officer Jason Van Dyke, even after the black teen falls to the ground.
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