Black Optimism In The Obama Era

A new Pew study shows that, a year after President Obama's inauguration, blacks in America are much more optimistic about how America treats black people, what the future will hold for black equality, and the standard-of-living gap between black America and white America.

Thirty-nine percent of blacks now say blacks are better off than they were five years ago, up from 20 percent in 2007:



Which accompanies a growing impression that the black/white standard of living gap is smaller than it was 10 years ago, that the future of blacks will be better, greater satisfaction with local communities, and a 76 percent impression that blacks and whites get along:
Obama hasn't necessarily lived up to the post-election euphoria on race relations, as fewer people now see his presidency as improving race relations in America: 74 percent of blacks said it would back then; 54 percent say it is now.  48 percent of whites said it would then; 32 said it is now.

Perhaps most interestingly, while Obama's election has transformed some opinions, blacks and whites don't actually see eye to eye on how to describe his race: blacks tend to say he's "black" (55 percent to 34 percent), while whites tend to say he's "mixed race" (53 percent to 24 percent).

Obama has a 95 percent favorability rating among blacks.

The new data are from polling conducted October 28 to 2009, with 2,884 respondents, and a +/- 3 percent margin of error.