Year after George Floyd's death, poll reveals how Americans feel about race relations
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But even after all that happened, a new poll reveals that only 17 per cent of Americans believe that race relations in the country are better contemporarily than last year
One of the biggest conversations in the world over the last year included the name George Floyd. The black man died after a police officer in Minneapolis, United States knelt on his neck while he gasped for breath on May 25, 2020.
His last words, “I can’t breathe” became symbolic of America’s fight against systemic racism and police brutality. The officer who led to his death, Derek Chauvin was found guilty of all three charges against him - second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter - some of the most severe charges in the US.
Now, it’s been a year since the unfortunate crime, but things aren’t looking up for black community and racial minorities in the US. The protests that followed Floyd’s death ignited the painful conversation surrounding racism in the US. Protests spilled into multiple cities in the country and many turned violent. The world too, took notice and protested against police brutality in their own countries.
But even after all that happened, a new poll reveals that only 17 per cent of Americans believe that race relations in the country are better contemporarily than last year. The survey, undertaken by NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist sheds light on how people from different races perceive the country’s response to the twin crisis of racism and police brutality.
Out of 1,249 people from diverse races who participated in the poll, over a third of the respondents believed that race relations would improve with Joe Biden as US President. 28 per cent believed that race relations would take a turn for the worse under Biden, as opposed to 52 per cent who believed the same in 2017, when Donald Trump was president.
Among black people, six out of 10 claimed that they faced discrimination or unfair treatment due to their race or ethnicity. Only 15 per cent white Americans said the same. In terms of police treatment, 61 per cent black Americans and 39 per cent latinos claimed that they received harsher treatment from the police.
According to the survey, almost 50 per cent of white Americans believe that the police could gain the trust of the community. At the same time, only 12 per cent of black Americans said the same. The trends indicate that a lot of work in the arena of racial equality needs to be undertaken in the United States.