Poll: Hopes Buoyed on Race Relations

Oct. 24, 2009— -- While some of the soaring optimism of Election Day has tempered, more than six in 10 Americans predict in a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll that Barack Obama's presidency will improve race relations in the United States in the years ahead.

Four in 10 say it already has.

As the anniversary of his election approaches, the mood of the recession-battered nation continues to be generally glum: By 3-1, those surveyed say they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country, and Obama's job-approval rating is a middling 50 percent.

Even so, a solid majority of blacks and whites say race relations will get better as a result of his presidency; just 13 percent say they will get worse. By 41-22 percent, those surveyed say race relations have improved rather than worsened since election day.

"A breakthrough like that -- it shows to a certain extent that the majority of the population is open to the idea that a biracial person could (be) the most powerful person in the United States," says Chris Weber, 60, a teacher and writer from Portland who is white. He was among those called in the poll.

Barbara Gregory, 49, an electronic technician from Philadelphia who is black, says Obama's election may have made it easier for individuals to "look at it from each other's point of view."

To be sure, race remains a flashpoint and a divide. Blacks are much more likely than whites to say that racism against blacks persists -- 72 percent of blacks say it is widespread, compared with 49 percent of whites -- but they are also more optimistic that Obama's election will improve that.

A 53 percent majority of African Americans say race relations already have gotten better as a result.

There has been some recalibration of the euphoric expectations expressed in a USA TODAY survey taken the day after the election, on Nov. 5, 2008. Then, 28 percent predicted race relations would get "a lot" better, compared with 15 percent now. Forty-two percent said they would be "a little" better, compared with 46 percent now.