According to a recent report from the Pew Research Center, black and white Americans have deeply different perceptions of everything from discrimination and police brutality to the Obama presidency and the Black Lives Matter movement.
From the study, titled "On Views of Race and Inequality, Blacks and Whites are Worlds Apart," emphasis mine:
When asked about the underlying reasons that blacks may be having a harder time getting ahead than whites, large majorities of black adults point to societal factors. Two-thirds or more blacks say failing schools (75%), racial discrimination (70%) and a lack of jobs (66%) are major reasons that black people may have a harder time getting ahead these days.
On each of these items, the views of blacks differ significantly from those of whites. But, by far, the biggest gap comes on racial discrimination, where only 36% of whites say this is a major reason that blacks may be struggling to get ahead, 34 percentage points lower than the share of blacks who say the same.
Another big finding from the report: 43 percent of black survey respondents said that they were skeptical whether the U.S. "would make the changes needed to give blacks equal rights with whites." Only 11 percent of whites surveyed were skeptical.
An overwhelming majority of blacks (88%) say the country needs to continue making changes for blacks to have equal rights with whites, but 43% are skeptical that such changes will ever occur. An additional 42% of blacks believe that the country will eventually make the changes needed for blacks to have equal rights with whites, and just 8% say the country has already made the necessary changes.
A much lower share of whites (53%) say the country still has work to do for blacks to achieve equal rights with whites, and only 11% express doubt that these changes will come. Four-in-ten whites believe the country will eventually make the changes needed for blacks to have equal rights, and about the same share (38%) say enough changes have already been made.
Other highlights from the Pew Center's report:
• 84 percent of black respondents said that blacks are treated less fairly than whites when dealing with police. 50 percent of the white respondents agreed.
• About 65 percent of black respondents said they supported the Black Lives Matter movement and 41 percent said they strongly supported it. About 40 percent of white respondents said they supported BLM "at least somewhat." Pew notes that white support for the movement was "particularly the case among white Democrats and those younger than 30."
• Nearly 60 percent of white Republicans said too much attention was paid to race these days.
• 66 percent of black respondents said that it was harder for them to apply for a loan or mortgage than it would be for a white person. Only 25 percent of white respondents agreed.
• 51 percent of black respondents said Barack Obama's administration made race relations better while only 5 percent said he made it worse. 28 percent of white respondents said Obama's presidency improved race relations while 32 percent said he made it worse.
