A Gallup poll released Wednesday found Americans appear to be increasingly concerned about race relations.
When asked to rate how much they personally worry about race relations, 42 percent of respondents in the survey said they worry “a great deal.” That number ticked up steadily over the course of the Obama administration, more than tripling since Gallup’s poll from March of 2010 when only 13 percent said the same. Notably, 2017’s poll came after two months of a Trump administration.
The percentage increased almost every year between 2010 and 2017, but the sharpest increases came between 2014 and 2017 when it climbed from 17 percent to 42 percent.
Gallup’s data between 2001 and 2008 found that the number ranged from as low as 16 percent to 28 percent before the election of Barack Obama. It dipped to 13 percent in 2010 but then continued to increase again almost every year of his administration.
The number of Americans who reported worrying “not at all” about race relations also decreased every year after 2010, with the exception of 2014, dipping from 26 percent to 12 percent today.
Unfortunately, this trajectory is likely not the direction people expected the country to move in under the administration of the first black president.
The poll was conducted Mar. 1-5 with a sample of 1,018 adults and a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
