Race relations are always a significant issue in American public life. Recently, events in Charlottesville have added a presidential dimension to the discussion.

The Pew Research Center has published a study this week that gives us some insight into how attitudes towards racism have changed since 1995. The research uses survey data from a series of polls conducted by the Washington Post and Harvard University since the 1990s. Respondents of all races and ethnicities were asked the following question:

“How big a problem is racism in our society today? Is it a big problem, somewhat of a problem, a small problem, or not a problem at all?”.

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What can we learn from this data?

One thing that is striking from the information we have is that it suggests perceived racism was especially low in the early days of Barack Obama’s presidency. It’s possible that having just elected the first African American president, some Americans felt that US society was moving away from the racism and discrimination of the past.

But we have to be careful to avoid confusing cause and correlation. We simply don’t know why perceptions of racism have followed this pattern since 1995 – however tempting it is to draw conclusions.