49% Say White-Hispanic Relations Getting Worse

Forty-nine percent (49%) of U.S. voters now believe relations between whites and Hispanics in America are getting worse, up 15 points from 34% in December. But voter perceptions of black-Hispanic relations are unchanged.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 28% think white-Hispanic relations are improving.

In the previous survey, 40% said relations between white Americans and Hispanics were getting better.

The survey taken Monday and Tuesday nights follows Arizona’s passage of a controversial law to crack down on illegal immigrants. Sixty-four percent (64%) of voters in the state support the new law. So do 60% of voters nationwide.

But 58% also favor a policy that would welcome all immigrants except “national security threats, criminals and those who would come here to live off our welfare system.”

Twenty-eight percent (28%) of voters now say there is more discrimination these days against Hispanics than against African-Americans or women, up seven points from December. Twenty-one percent (21%) say women are more discriminated against, while just 13% say the same of blacks. Thirty-eight percent (38%) are not sure. In the previous survey, voters put women at the head of the list, with Hispanics second and blacks third.

There has been virtually no change over the past four months in voter perceptions of black-Hispanic relations. Nineteen percent (19%) say the relationship between blacks and Hispanics is getting better, while 37% believe it’s getting worse.

Fifty-five percent (55%) believe relations between blacks and whites are getting better, down from 62% in December. Twenty-three percent (23%) say that relationship is getting worse, and 17% say neither is the case.

Seventy-seven percent (77%) of voters say relations between whites and blacks are better today than they were in the 1960s, marking very little change from the previous survey. Eighteen percent (18%) say relations between the two are not better today.

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