Public Divided On Clinton's Race Initiative
Survey finds skepticism about whether it will help
By Keating Holland/CNN
WASHINGTON (June 9) -- In the year since President Bill Clinton launched his initiative on race relations, only
a third of the public says race relations have improved in this country, according to a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll.
The public is closely divided over whether Clinton's initiative will eventually help to improve race relations, and only a third of all
Americans say they have been closely following the initiative in the
past year, the poll also found.
The results are based on interviews with 1,003 adults June 5-7, and the margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points.
Race Relations In Past Year |
Better Same Worse | 33% 52% 15% |
Clinton's Race Initiative Will Be Effective |
Yes No | 48% 45% |
Have You Followed Clinton's Race Initiative In Past Year? |
Yes No | 34% 65% |
Whites and African-Americans view race relations differently in this country, according to the combined results of CNN/USA Today/Gallup surveys this month and in April. The following results are based on interviews with 1,681 whites and 213 African Americans in April and June of this year. The margin of sampling error ranges from +/- 4 to +/- 8 percentage points for this polling.
A majority of blacks say that race relations are bad; only a third of whites feel that way. Nonetheless, neither blacks nor whites think racial hatred is widespread. A majority of blacks say only a few whites hate blacks, and a majority of whites say only a few blacks hate whites.
Only 5 percent of blacks say almost all whites hate people like themselves; only 6 percent of whites feel that almost all blacks hate whites.
Race Relations Today |
Good Neutral Bad |
Whites 40% 24% 34% |
African-Americans 31% 17% 51% |
Sampling error: +/-8% |
How Many Whites Hate African-Americans? |
Only a few Many Almost all |
African-Americans 51% 40% 5% |
Sampling error: +/-8% |
How Many African-Americans Hate Whites? |
Only a few Many Almost all |
Whites 52% 37% 6% |
Sampling error: +/-4% |
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