A new Gallup poll released Monday showed that fewer Americans believe that race relations have improved since the election of Barack Obama as president.
The poll, which surveyed 1,521 adults from October 16-19, showed that, 41% of Americans believe race relations have improved since Obama's election, while 35% believe they have stayed the same and 22% believe they have gotten worse.
This represents a sharp drop from the 70% who believed race relations had improved in November 2008, when Obama was elected. At that time, 17% believed that race relations had stayed the same, while only 10% believed they had gotten worse.
When broken down by race, the poll found that 53% of African-Americans believe that relations have improved, while only 39% of whites felt the same.
Still, despite these numbers, the poll also found that most Americans remain hopeful about the long-term impacts Obama's presidency will have on race relations.
According to the poll, 61% of Americans believe Obama's presidency will have a positive long-term effect on race relations. Only 13% felt that race relations would get worse long-term under Obama, while 25% felt that relations won't change.
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