Is racism on the rise? More in U.S. say it’s a ‘big problem,’ CNN/KFF poll finds
By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN
Updated
7:34 AM EST, Wed November 25, 2015
(CNN) —
Debora Aust sees it in videos of recent police shootings.
Alex Sproul reads about it in his Facebook feed.
Sheryl Sims senses it when she walks down the street.
They are three Americans from three different demographic groups living in three different states. And they believe the same thing: Racism is a big problem.
Their voices are just a few in a country of more than 322 million people. But they are far from alone.
In a new nationwide poll conducted by CNN and the Kaiser Family Foundation, roughly half of Americans – 49% – say racism is “a big problem” in society today.
The figure marks a significant shift from four years ago, when over a quarter described racism that way. The percentage is also higher now than it was two decades ago. In 1995, on the heels of the O.J. Simpson trial and just a few years after the Rodney King case surged into the spotlight, 41% of Americans described racism as “a big problem.”
Is racism on the rise in the United States? Has our awareness changed? Or is it a problem that’s been blown out of proportion?
There’s not a one-size-fits-all explanation for the shift. The survey of 1,951 Americans across the country paints a complicated portrait, highlighting some similarities across racial lines and also exposing gaps that seem to be growing.
But this much is clear: Across the board, in every demographic group surveyed, there are increasing percentages of people who say racism is a big problem – and majorities say that racial tensions are on the rise.
It caught Debora Aust by surprise.
’A different story’
The 48-year-old white woman from Sterling Heights, Michigan, says she didn’t expect racism to get worse.
“It always seemed like it was getting better, like our generation was going to be better than previous generations,” says Aust, who participated in the CNN/KFF poll. “But the TV started telling us a different story, with all of these shootings by cops.”
For Aust, whose father and uncle both work in law enforcement, the news stories she’s seen about unarmed African-American men being shot by police have hit home. The officers should be held accountable, she says.
“What’s not helping is the police are getting off with a slap on the wrist. … If it was me, and I was black, and this was happening in my community, I would be furious,” she says.
The case of Walter Scott, who was shot in April by an officer in North Charleston, South Carolina, sticks out in her mind. The trial hasn’t started yet. The officer’s attorney says he plans to plead not guilty, and that race has nothing to do with the case. But Aust has already made up her mind.
“I mean, give me a break, he wouldn’t have done that if the man was white, and that’s the problem,” she says.
It’s gotten worse, not better, since the 2008 election of President Barack Obama, says Ellis Onic. The 56-year-old engineer in Balch Springs, Texas, who’s African-American, points to the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin and this year’s Charleston church massacre as examples. Time and time again, Onic says, the justice system has failed.
“The white man has had his way for so long, they don’t think of it as racism. They think that’s just the way it is. … We have a long way to go, because the justice system is not right. Justice is corrupt,” he says. “That’s why she has the blindfold over her eyes and the scale slightly tilted, so you know that it can go either way.”
The white, 83-year-old retired advertising executive in St. Louis, who participated in the CNN/KFF poll, says media coverage alleging racism – particularly when it comes to law enforcement officers – has been overblown.
“I am troubled by the bias I see in the media, that seems to spend all its time talking about the bad policemen and the bad white people and ignoring the crime and the disastrous conditions that are occurring in large segments of the black youth,” he says.
Bruemmer says he’s had to look no further than a suburb of St. Louis to see that firsthand.
“The belief is so universally held among the people I know, that the whole Ferguson thing was a farce,” he says, “that ’hands up, don’t shoot’ was baloney, that the police officer behaved in a very proper manner and saved his own life, possibly.”
Growing racism?
Photos: In the news: Conversations about race
Harvard University police said they were investigating a possible hate crime at the law school after someone covered portraits of black faculty members in tape, according to university officials. Some photographs were defaced with strips of black tape and discovered on November 19. Take a look at other events that brought discussions of race relations and identity to the forefront in 2015.
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WFXT
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Tim Wolfe, president of the University of Missouri, resigned from his post on November 9, 2015, amid a controversy regarding race relations at the school. Wolfe and the rest of the school's administration had been accused of taking little to no action after several racial incidents on campus. A day before the resignation, black players on the school's football team said they would essentially go on strike until Wolfe resigned or was fired.
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Jeff Roberson/AP
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In September, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for making what appeared to be a bomb. The "bomb" was actually a clock he had made on his own. "I built a clock to impress my teacher but when I showed it to her, she thought it was a threat to her," Ahmed said. Outrage over the incident lit up social media as #IStandWithAhmed started trending worldwide on Twitter. Ahmed got an invitation to the White House after the incident.
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ASHRAF SHAZLY/AFP/AFP/Getty
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On July 23, the WWE terminated its contract with legendary wrestler Hulk Hogan after the National Enquirer released a transcript of statements he made that included racial slurs. The remarks were recorded in an "unauthorized sex tape," according to the Enquirer, and included the N-word in reference to the dating life of his daughter, Brooke. Hogan apologized for the offensive language.
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Mark Dadswell/Getty Images
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Officer Ray Tensing fatally shot Samuel Dubose, 43, on July 19 after a struggle at a traffic stop over a missing license tag, Cincinnati police said. Dubose was driving away when Tensing shot him in the head, police said. Tensing said he feared for his life. However, prosecutors said DuBose was not acting aggressively. The case quickly drew attention from "Black Lives Matter" protesters, who accused the white officer of using excessive force on Dubose, who was black. Tensing, who's been charged with murder and voluntary manslaughter, has pleaded not guilty.
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Sandra Bland died at Waller County Jail in Texas on July 13, three days after being arrested for allegedly making an improper lane change. During the traffic stop, authorities say she was belligerent. Authorities say there was no foul play involved in her death. They say Bland hanged herself with a trash bag from a metal barrier that separated the bathroom from the rest of her cell. Her family has said the idea that she committed suicide is unthinkable. Before her death, Bland spoke out frequently on social media about racism and police brutality.
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Texas Department of Public Safety
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After flying for 54 years on South Carolina's Capitol grounds, it took only a moment to take down the Confederate flag on July 10, 2015. Years of deep-rooted controversy over the banner gained steam after the June massacre of nine black churchgoers in Charleston. "This flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state," Gov. Nikki Haley said as she called for its removal.
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In June, multiple fires at predominantly African-American churches in several Southern states were in the spotlight. The fires came in the wake of the massacre at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and raised speculation about arson and hate crimes.
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Charlotte Fire Department
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PBS said on June 24 that it would postpone the third season of "Finding Your Roots" after an internal review that concluded actor Ben Affleck improperly influenced the show to omit the fact that his ancestors owned slaves. The investigation stemmed from reports in April that Affleck had asked the show to edit out the fact that his family history involved slave ownership. Affleck admitted on Facebook to making the request soon after the controversy spilled into the public.
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During an interview released on June 22, Obama dropped the N-word. Obama used the word during an interview for the podcast "WTF with Marc Maron" to make the point that racism is still a problem in our society.
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Pete Souza/White House
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Nine people died when a gunman opened fire on a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17. A law enforcement official said witnesses told authorities the gunman stood up and said he was there "to shoot black people." Dylann Roof, 21, pleaded not guilty to 33 federal charges, including federal hate crime and firearms charges.
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BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
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After Donald Trump described some Mexicans who come to the United States illegally as "killers" and "rapists" in June, Univision, NBC and Macy's later cut ties with the Republican presidential candidate. Jorge Ramos, a prominent Univision host, called Trump's remarks "absurd" and "prejudiced." Trump has stood by his comments and continued his push for a crackdown on illegal immigration.
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PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: In the news: Conversations about race
Rachel Dolezal stepped down as the head of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP on June 15 amid allegations she lied about her race. Dolezal, is white, but has said she identifies as black. The idea someone might misrepresent themselves by claiming they were black, then earn a leadership position in one of the nation's top advocacy groups for African-Americans, stirred a social media firestorm when the news broke.
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Family Photo/From Eastern Washington Univ.
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Edgar Antillon, co-owner of Rubbin' Buttz BBQ and Country Cafe in Milliken, Colorado, drew criticism for offering a "White Appreciation Day" discount on June 11. What started as a joke about how there's no holiday that celebrates "the white community" was been misinterpreted as a racially charged promotion, Antillon said.
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Rubbin Buttz BBQ
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Officer Eric Casebolt resigned on June 9, days after a YouTube video showing his response to reports of fighting at a McKinney, Texas, pool party sparked swift allegations of racism. Critics decried the white officer for cursing at several black teenagers, unholstering and waving his gun at boys and throwing a 14-year-old girl to the ground, his knees pressed down on her back. Casebolt's attorney said race had nothing to do with how the officer responded.
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U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez apologized on May 17 for an ethnically touchy gaffe that was caught on cell phone video. Sanchez was ad-libbing at a California Democratic Party convention when she made a stereotypical Native American "war cry."
"I'm going to his office, thinkin' that I'm gonna go meet with woo-woo-woo-woo, right? 'Cause he said 'Indian-American,'" she said, using the gesture to try to discern between Indian-Americans -- with ancestry from India's subcontinent -- and Native Americans. Many in the audience at the Indian-American caucus reacted with silence.
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Fury erupted in May over incoming Boston University sociology and African-American studies professor Saida Grundy's tweets about white men, race and slavery. Her personal Twitter account was made private, but the Boston Globe reported some of the tweets: "why is white america so reluctant to identify white college males as a problem population?" and "every MLK week i commit myself to not spending a dime in white-owned businesses. and every year i find it nearly impossible." A few days after the debate went into overdrive, Grundy made a statement to the Boston Globe.
"I regret that my personal passion about issues surrounding these events led me to speak about them indelicately," she said.
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STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images/FILE
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Loretta Lynch was sworn in as the U.S. attorney general on April 27. The nomination of Lynch, the country's first African-American woman to serve in the role, was held up more than five months over politicking in the Senate. Democrats claimed the voting delay was racially motivated, despite GOP protestations otherwise.
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Getty Images
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Freddie Gray died on April 19 after allegedly suffering a devastating spinal injury while in police custody. Six Baltimore police officers have been indicted on charges connected with the African-American man's death. All have pleaded not guilty. Activists have claimed race played a role in Gray's arrest and the way officers treated him. Protests and riots broke out in Baltimore on the day of Gray's funeral.
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North Charleston police officer Michael Slager was fired from his job and then charged with murder in the shooting of 50-year-old Walter Scott. Slager pulled over Scott on April 4, reportedly for a broken brake light. Scott was later shot in the back by Slager as he was running away. Scott was black and Slager is white. A bystander recorded the shooting, and the graphic footage sparked outrage and reignited a national conversation around race and policing. Slager's attorney has said that there was a violent struggle before the officer opened fire, that his client plans to plead not guilty and that race has nothing to do with the case. Prosecutors say Slager showed malice of forethought and "executed" Scott. The family of Scott and the city of North Charleston have reached a $6.5 million settlement.
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While Mindy Kaling was working on her Fox sitcom, "The Mindy Project," her brother, Vijay Chokal-Ingam, admitted he pretended to be black to get into medical school. The revelation came in April as Chokal-Ingam, who is of Indian descent, was pitching a book about his experiences as a "hard-partying college frat boy who discovered the seriousness and complexity of America's racial problems while posing as a black man."
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Courtesy Almost Black
Photos: In the news: Conversations about race
On April 1, a noose was found hanging from a tree at Duke University. Social media pictures spread quickly, causing outrage on campus. Later that day, the Black Student Alliance hosted a march across campus. Hundreds of students of all races marched, chanting, "We are not afraid. We stand together."
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CNN/Henry Wash Jr.
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In March, Starbucks received mix responses to its "Race Together" campaign. The company ran full-page ads in The New York Times and USA Today announcing the initiative. Starbucks held open forums for workers to talk about race, and baristas in cities where forums were held began writing the slogan on customers' cups, aiming to spark a dialogue.
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Stephen Brashear/Getty Images
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Thousands of people marked the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Alabama. President Obama made a rousing speech on racial progress in a diverse country. "Our march is not yet finished. But we are getting closer," he said. The violent confrontation with police and state troops on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965, marked a pivotal point in the Civil Rights Movement.
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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The University of Oklahoma severed ties with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity in March. A video anonymously sent to the school's newspaper on March 7 showed the fraternity chanting, "There will never be a ni**** SAE. You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me." Two members who were leading the chant were expelled. "The song is horrific and does not at all reflect our values as an organization," said Blaine Ayers, executive director of SAE.
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Uproar broke out when White Pride Radio put up a billboard reading, "It's NOT racist to love your people" in Harrison, Arkansas. Thomas Robb, the national director of Knights of the KKK, said there was no racist intent with the billboard. "If anybody sees racism in that billboard, then they themselves are racist," Robb told CNN in January.
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Gauging changes in racial attitudes is complicated, says Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, a professor of sociology at Duke University. Bonilla-Silva has a phrase he uses to describe the situation he sees today: “new racism.”
Communities of color across the country can more easily connect, according to Bonilla-Silva, and people are picking up on patterns that scholars have long discussed.
“People are doing Sociology 101. They can connect Walter Scott, the assassinations of black folks in a church, the slamming of a girl in a school,” he says. “And then it’s across the nation. People are then connecting the dots and saying, ‘No more.’”
Growing awareness?
While the trend of a growing percentage of people viewing racism as a big problem in recent years was true across racial lines in the CNN/KFF poll, the share who see it as a problem is notably higher among blacks and Hispanics.
About two-thirds of blacks (66%) and Hispanics (64%) said racism is a big problem, while just over four in 10 (43%) whites said the same. Hispanics are much more likely now to say racism is a big problem than they were in 1995, when less than half responded that way. Among blacks, the share who said racism was a big problem dropped from 68% in 1995 to 50% in 2011, and now has climbed back to 66%.
Majorities across races said tensions between racial and ethnic groups in the United States have increased in the past 10 years. Roughly a quarter said tensions have stayed the same.
Sometimes the way people view racism can play out like a referee’s call in a baseball game, says Glenn Adams, a professor of psychology at the University of Kansas who has studied perceptions of racism.
“Is the guy out or safe? Well, it depends who you’re rooting for,” he says. “Sometimes it’s clear in either direction, but we tend to see it how we want to see it.”
It’s likely the level of racism in the United States is more or less the same, Adams says.
“What’s changed,” he says, “is that more people are aware of it.”
Knowledge of history, having friends who’ve experienced racism and personal background are all factors that can contribute to a greater awareness of racism, he says. And now, he says, there’s likely another factor at play.
“People are more aware of it because of the videos of police violence and the media attention. Now, the media report on it,” Adams says. “Black folks tended to know about this before. Now white folks are starting to know about it more. … Now, with this kind of evidence, people have to re-evaluate their sense of what is true and what is not true, so it becomes a little bit harder for people to deny.”
The same goes for repeated incidents of racism on college campuses, Bonilla-Silva says, like the chant that shuttered a fraternity at the University of Oklahoma and the noose found hanging at Duke this year.
It’s impossible to dismiss cases as isolated events, he says, when similar situations at schools and other institutions keep happening again and again.
“The fact that it keeps happening tells you that the problem is not a problem of bad apples,” he says, “but perhaps the problem is the apple tree.”
’We’re all kind of in the same boat’
Because of his complexion, sometimes people think Rick Gonzales is Italian. Sometimes they think he’s Mexican or Middle Eastern. The experience, he says, has made him question the meaning of race.
“It’s obviously a label. Something tells me that we’re all kind of in the same boat, yet we’re separated somehow. We’re given different names,” says Gonzales, a 49-year-old truck driver from San Antonio, who participated in the CNN/KFF poll.
Gonzales’ mother is from Mexico and his father is from the United States. He says he feels that for people in power – most of whom are white – it’s advantageous to pit groups against each other. And to him, it seems like no matter what, darker-skinned people are at a disadvantage. That, he says, is why race – and racism – remain big problems.
“The ones that are usually getting the short end of the stick are the so-called minority … but we’re the majority, because we’re always the ones who are struggling,” he says.
Sheryl Sims, an African-American, 59-year-old retired teacher in Atlanta who participated in the CNN/KFF poll, says that for her, racism is something she senses when she walks down the street in her neighborhood.
“It’s just the way people will shun you,” she says, “or turn their head when you walk by.”
Photos: Love in the face of racism: Being an interracial family
Karen Garsee and her family canoeing on Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas.
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Karen Garsee/CNN iReport
Photos: Love in the face of racism: Being an interracial family
Chris plays basketball with Kaylee and helps her dunk the ball and make the game-winning shot, Garsee says.
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Karen Garsee/CNN iReport
Photos: Love in the face of racism: Being an interracial family
Kaylee got new skates for her birthday and Chris is helping her put them on in this photo.
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Karen Garsee/CNN iReport
Photos: Love in the face of racism: Being an interracial family
"I have never liked carnival rides, Karen Garsee says. "However, Chris loves them and now that Kaylee is older and very brave they go on all the rides together, which definitely takes the pressure off of me."
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Karen Garsee/CNN iReport
Photos: Love in the face of racism: Being an interracial family
Daniel and Natalie Martinez-Vlasoff pose with their three children in their home in Los Angeles in 2014. The couple welcomed a fourth child in November.
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Natalie Martinez-Vlasoff/CNN iReport
Photos: Love in the face of racism: Being an interracial family
Shortly after moving into their Los Angeles home, the kids wanted to break the house in while wearing Hawaiian sarongs, Natalie says.
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Natalie Martinez-Vlasoff/CNN iReport
Photos: Love in the face of racism: Being an interracial family
The family dressed up as "Adventure Time" characters for Halloween in 2014.
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Natalie Martinez-Vlasoff/CNN iReport
Photos: Love in the face of racism: Being an interracial family
Kristin and Eric Njimegni pose with her family during their wedding reception in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, on December 2013.
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Al Hellmann/CNN iReport
Photos: Love in the face of racism: Being an interracial family
Kristin and Eric Njimegni take a selfie in the rain. The couple met in Moscow while studying and working abroad.
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Kristin Njimegni/CNN iReport
Things were worse 50 or 60 years ago, Alex Sproul says. But now, the 24-year-old, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and participated in the CNN/KFF poll, says he sees racism lurking under the surface.
From wage inequality to accessibility to jobs, Sproul says he feels minorities are still at a disadvantage.
Sproul describes himself as mixed race – Mexican-American and white. He says several events in recent years have made him feel racial tensions are on the rise.
One of them, he says, was the 2009 shooting death of Oscar Grant, an unarmed African-American man who was fatally shot by a police officer on a Bay Area Rapid Transit platform. Sproul says he first learned about the case when he was scanning his Facebook feed and saw posts from friends.
“You kind of see more of these situations, or extremes,” he says. “I don’t know if maybe it was going on before and there was no coverage, or if it’s happening with greater frequency.”
Too much hype?
Bruemmer, the retired advertising executive in St. Louis, says he sees racism as a big problem – but not for the reason you might think.
Too often, he says, leaders play the race card rather than addressing what he sees as the real issue behind many of the problems popping up in society today: broken families, particularly in the black community.
“The massive problem that I see is that our leaders at the highest level … do not even want to recognize or even acknowledge that this problem exists, and therefore they spend huge amounts of time demonizing the police force, throwing gasoline and making the problems much worse,” he says.
Racism is inevitable in any society, he says. But now, he fears that because of bad leadership, tensions are on the rise among some groups in the United States.
“I think the racism and the hatred of the white race has grown to the point where it’s worse than in the other direction. … I think the anger and the racism is much worse from black to white than white to black,” he says.
Searching for common ground
It’s hard to draw a clear conclusion when the reasons behind respondents’ answers to a survey question can vary so widely, says Mark Naison, a professor of history and African-American studies at Fordham University.
“People may agree that racism is worse,” he says, “and disagree profoundly on who the targets and victims are.”
“Simmering rage,” he says, has been fueled by backlash after Obama’s election, the economic struggles of lower- and middle-income whites and demographic shifts across the country.
“Latent racism is becoming more open, because a lot of people are feeling threatened,” he says.
But Naison says he’s also noticed a significant change in his classes.
“People are able to empathize, communicate and talk honestly across racial lines much better than they did five years ago, and certainly 10 years ago and 20 years ago,” he says.
Why? Naison says the changing world students are living in, full of far more multiracial families and friendships, has played a big role. A video of a police beating, he says, resonates for people now because they’re not looking at those involved as strangers.
“It’s not just that guy over there,” he says. “You could be beating my cousin or my boyfriend.”
The mix of “simmering rage” and growing empathy is a complicated equation, he says, that adds up to more people talking about race – and racism.
And it’s a conversation, according to Naison, that isn’t going away any time soon. If people from different backgrounds can open up about their concerns and find common ground, it could be a good thing, Naison says, like a therapy session on a national scale.
“That conversation is difficult,” he says. “But our history is difficult. Our present is difficult. We need to talk about it.”
The CNN/Kaiser Family Foundation poll was conducted August 25-October 3, 2015, among a random national sample of 1,951 adults, including 501 Black and 500 Hispanic respondents. Results for all groups have been adjusted to reflect their actual national distribution. Interviews were conducted on conventional telephones and cellphones, in English and Spanish, by SSRS of Media, Pa. This poll was jointly developed and analyzed by CNN and staff of the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points; for results based on African Americans or Hispanics it is plus or minus 6 percentage points.
