64 percent say racism against Black people is widespread in US: Gallup

A majority of respondents in a Gallup poll released Friday say that racism against Black Americans is prevalent in the U.S.

Sixty-four percent of respondents said racism is widespread in the U.S., up 3 points from the 61 percent which said as much in 2016.

Of the respondents, 84 percent of non-Hispanic Black adults and 72 percent of Hispanic adults said racism is widespread, compared to 59 percent of non-Hispanic white adults who said the same.

But the survey found a large partisan gap between respondents who said racism was widespread and those who did not. Ninety-one percent of Democrats polled said racism was widespread, compared to 62 percent of independents and 34 percent of Republicans.

Gallup first began recording this measure in 2009, and has only done so a total of five times.

It wasn’t until 2015 when Gallup recorded 60 percent of Americans saying racism against Black people was widespread. This came amid several high-profile incidents of Black people killed by police.

Gallup said it did not ask this question in 2020, when America was grappling with the police killing of George Floyd and other incidents of racism towards African Americans.

The findings were a part of Gallup’s 2021 update on minority rights in relations.

The survey found that 69 percent of U.S. adults polled said progress for Black Americans’ civil rights during their lifetimes have improved, up from 59 percent who said so last year.

This includes 44 percent of respondents who said civil rights have “somewhat improved” and 25 percent who said they have “greatly improved.”

Still, 61 percent of Americans in the survey said they are dissatisfied with the way Black people are treated in society, compared to 38 percent who said they were either very or somewhat satisfied.

Gallup surveyed 1,381 adults between June 1- July 5, 2021. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.