Poll: Hopes are high for race relations - USATODAY.com: WASHINGTON — Barack Obama's election has inspired a wave of optimism about the future of race relations in the United States, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken the day after the first African American won the White House.
Confidence that the nation will resolve its racial problems rose to a historic level. Two-thirds of Americans predict that relations between blacks and whites 'will eventually be worked out' in the United States, by far the highest number since Gallup first asked the question in the midst of the civil rights struggle in 1963.
Optimism jumped most among blacks. Five months ago, half of African Americans predicted the nation eventually would solve its racial problems. Now, two-thirds do.
"Barack didn't elect himself; we Americans elected him," says Roger Wilkins, a civil rights leader and professor of history and American culture at George Mason University in suburban Virginia. "And I think that there are lots and lots of people who say, 'Damn, we're not as racist as we thought we were,' so they're pleased."
