Poll: Majority of Americans think race relations are getting worse

Pessimism about race relations in America is higher than it has been in nearly a generation, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. In the aftermath of the mass shooting of police officers in Dallas and the high-profile police shooting deaths of two black men, in Baton Rouge and suburban St. Paul, Minn., more than 6 in 10 adults say race relations are generally bad, and a majority say they are getting worse.

“This is certainly the worst political climate that I’ve seen in my lifetime, but on some level the violence and hatred have always been around,” said Peniel Joseph, the founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and a professor of history at the University of Texas.

While there is agreement that race relations are deteriorating, the common ground ends there, according to follow-up interviews with those who took part in the survey. There is no gathering consensus on how to solve the issue or who is to blame.

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As Clinton and Trump prepare to face off in earnest in the general election, the presumptive Democratic nominee enters the contest with a large advantage among voters when it comes to dealing with issues of race.

In the new Post-ABC poll, more than twice as many Americans trust Clinton to handle race relations than trust Trump, 58 percent to 26 percent. The issue could be a weak spot for Trump, whose rhetoric often has been perceived as racially divisive.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/more-than-6-in-10-adults-say-us-race-relations-are-generally-bad-poll-indicates/2016/07/16/66548936-4aa8-11e6-90a8-fb84201e0645_story.html?wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-politics%252Bnation