In the wake of high profile killings of unarmed black men by police, Americans feel blacks are treated less fairly today than they were in 2007, according to a survey released on Tuesday.
Whites, blacks and Hispanics also expressed a new low in their satisfaction with the way blacks are treated in US society, according to the Gallup 2015 Minority Rights and Relations poll.
Overall, about 49 percent of respondents said they were satisfied, compared to 62 percent just two years ago, pollsters said.
The survey of more than 2,000 respondents, conducted from June 15 until July 10, comes at a tense time between US law enforcement and the communities in which they operate, particularly after grand jury decisions not to indict white officers who killed unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri and in New York City.
“The effects of those incidents have led to an increase in the US public’s perceptions of race relations as the most important problem in the country, a decline in confidence in the police and a significant decrease in Americans’ satisfaction with the way blacks are treated in the US,” Gallup said on its website.
The decline in satisfaction among blacks 33 percent in 2015 compared to 47 percent in 2013 was expressed “even though blacks themselves are no more likely than two years ago to report being treated unfairly in various situations because of their race, including dealing with the police,” Gallup said.
