U.S. split on race relations improvement

PRINCETON, N.J., Nov. 9 (UPI) -- People are divided about whether race relations have improved since U.S. President Barack Obama took office, results of a Gallup Poll released Monday indicated.

Forty-one percent of respondents said they thought race relations had improved since Obama's win, 35 percent said race relations haven't change and 22 percent they've gotten worse, results indicated.

Fifty-three percent of blacks and 39 percent of whites said they thought relations improved overall, but only 11 percent of blacks and 7 percent of whites said they thought relations improved a lot, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.

Gallup said Americans' outlook on the Obama presidency's impact on relations was optimistic. Sixty-one percent, nearly as high as the 70 percent seen in November 2008, said they believed believe U.S. race relations would improve in the future because of Obama's presidency.

Results were based on nationwide telephone interviews with 1,521 national adults conducted Oct. 16-19, including an oversample of 408 blacks. Overall results had a margin of error of 3 percent.