Americans on race relations

Black and white Americans view the importance of race relations differently, according to a Gallup poll released less than a week before Dylann Roof shot and killed nine attendees of a black church in South Carolina. An average of 13 percent of black Americans say race relations is the most important problem, up 3 percent from the quarterly survey’s previous results. That tied with immigration (also 13 percent) as the most important topic to black Americans. Meanwhile, white Americans citing race relations as the top national problem rose from 3 percent to 4 percent over the same period. White respondents, however, viewed “dissatisfaction with the government” (18 percent) and the “econonmy in general” (12 percent) as the most important issues facing the nation.