More than half of U.S. thinks racism is widespread, according to Gallup

UPI

a day ago

A protestor stands in the street in front of Akron City Justice Center in Akron, Ohio, in July 2022 after Akron police fatally shot Jayland Walker, 25, after a short chase amid public unrest with law enforcement. Washington-based Gallup polling results suggest 64% of Americans believe racism is widespread in the United States. File Photo by Aaron Josefczyk/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 20 (UPI) -- New data released Wednesday by Gallup suggests more than half the country believes that racism against Black people is not only alive and well but widespread in the United States.
Gallup's newly-released results of 64% nearly tied with its last reading in its 2021 periodic measurements as its highest recorded by the Washington-based firm since 2008, the year Barack Obama was elected to the White House as the nation's first Black president.
It's suggesting that 83% of Black adults and 61% of White adults say that racism is widespread.
The question was first posed by Gallup experts in 2008, in which results said at the time that only 56% of U.S. adults thought racism was a widespread issues. It saw a reported dip to 51% by the following year.
By 2015, its 60% reading came at a time of several high-profile killings of Black civilians at the hands of law enforcement officers and has since remained in that range.
According to Gallup, police interactions stood out as the "top" area of unfair treatment toward Black people, with a perceptions of bias in healthcare, shopping, restaurants and workplaces at or near record high returns.
Gallup said that non-Hispanic Black adults continue to be "most likely" to say such racism is prevalent in the country, with 83% expressing that view.
Results found that smaller majorities of Hispanic respondents at 64% and 61% of non-Hispanic White adults agreed.
The findings come from Gallup's survey from June 2-26 and included an oversample to allow for better estimates.
"Conversely, Americans' (29%) belief that racism against White people is widespread is the lowest of five readings since 2008," according to Gallup.
It added that 68% in its poll say U.S. adults think civil rights "have improved" in their lifetime.
"The overall sample was weighted so all racial/ethnic groups are represented in their proper proportions of the U.S. population," according to Gallup officials.
But the survey noted how in six of its interactions that dealing with police was seen largely as racially "inequitable."
Gallup's results suggests a trend of at least 57% of Americans who believe Black people are treated less fairly than White people in various situations, particularly during traffic incidents that in recent years have been known to turn deadly in multiple states.