Has racism returned to America? AP Poll says so

According to a new Associated Press poll published this week, it appears that according to some racism against blacks has been nothing short of on the rise since President Obama’s election in 2008.

The poll, see here, notes that 51% of Americans reportedly showcase anti-black attitudes without ever acknowledging the attitudes; while most just downright do so.

• In all, 51% of Americans now express explicit anti-black attitudes, compared with 48% in a similar 2008 survey. When measured by an implicit racial attitudes test, the number of Americans with anti-black sentiments jumped to 56%, up from 49% during the last presidential election.
• The poll finds that racial prejudice is not limited to one group of partisans. Although Republicans were more likely than Democrats to express racial prejudice in the questions measuring explicit racism (79% among Republicans compared with 32% among Democrats), the implicit test found little difference between the two parties.
• Overall, the survey found that by virtue of racial prejudice, Obama could lose 5 percentage points off his share of the popular vote. However, Obama also stands to make up some of that (3 points) because of pro-black sentiment, researchers said.

“We have this false idea that there is uniformity in progress and that things change in one big step,” says Jelani Cobb of the Institute for African-American Studies at the University of Connecticut. “When we’ve seen progress, we’ve also seen backlash.”

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• AP poll: Majority harbor prejudice against blacks – Boston Herald (bostonherald.com)
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• AP poll: Majority harbor prejudice against blacks (king5.com)
• Racial prejudice in US worsened during Obama’s first term, study shows (guardian.co.uk)
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