28% of Blacks Think Most Americans Are Racist

Positive views of race relations in this country have taken a beating in recent days, although most continue to reject the idea that racism is rampant in America.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that just 23% of Americans Adults give good or excellent marks to race relations in America today. That’s down from a high of 34% in January. Thirty-nine percent (39%) now consider race relations poor, up from 31% five months ago. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Only 25% believe race relations are getting better, while 43% say they’re getting worse. This compares to 30% and 41% at the start of the year. But in June 2017, an all-time low of 18% said race relations were getting better, while 52% felt they were getting worse.

Little changed over the years are the 22% who believe that most Americans are racist. Sixty percent (60%) disagree, but 18% are not sure.

Also little changed are the 73% of Americans who think racism refers to any discrimination by people of one race against another. Just 19% feel racism refers only to discrimination by white people against minorities.

But 28% of blacks consider most Americans racist, compared to 20% of whites and 23% of other minority adults. Blacks (33%) are also more likely than whites (14%) and other minorities (25%) to think racism applies only to discrimination by whites against minorities.

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The survey of 1,000 American Adults was conducted June 11 and 14, 2020 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

With race-driven anti-police protests nationwide, one-in-three voters continue to believe America is on the brink of another civil war.

Blacks are the least optimistic that the protests will lead to positive change but the most supportive of removing Confederate symbols from public display.

Blacks are more pessimistic about race relations and their current direction than whites and other minorities are.

Democrats and those not affiliated with either major political party share that pessimism more than Republicans do.

Adults under 40 are more likely than their elders to believe that most Americans are racist and that racism refers only to discrimination by whites.

Twenty-six percent (26%) of Democrats believe most Americans are racist, a view shared by just 16% of Republicans and 24% of unaffiliated adults.

Forty-nine percent (49%) of Democrats think anyone who votes for President Trump is a racist. One-in-three Democrats believe it is racism anytime a white politician criticizes a politician of color.

Sixteen percent (16%) of all Americans think most cops are racist in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, up from 10% a year ago.

But most voters reject calls by some prominent Democrats to defund the police in their home community.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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