Roughly half of people asked, 49 percent, say racism is still a “big problem” in today’s society, according to a new poll.
Meanwhile, one in three say racism in society today is somewhat of a problem, while 9 percent said it is a small problem and just 7 percent said it is not a problem at all. Two percent of those surveyed in a new CNN/Kaiser Family Foundation poll said they don’t know or refused to answer.
In 1995, immediately after the O.J. Simpson trial and a few years after the Rodney King case, only 41 percent of Americans described racism as “a big problem.” And just 28 percent felt this way in 2011.
About two-thirds of blacks and Hispanics see racism as a big problem, while just 43 percent of whites said the same.
The conversation about racism seems unlikely to be going away anytime soon, especially in a world driven by technology and social media.
“That conversation is difficult. But our history is difficult. Our present is difficult. We need to talk about it,” Mark Naison, a professor of history and African-American studies at Fordham University, told CNN recently.
The poll was conducted Aug. 25-Oct. 3, 2015, among a random national sample of 1,951 adults, including 501 Black and 500 Hispanic respondents. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points; while for results based on African-Americans or Hispanics it is plus or minus 6 percentage points.
