Tampa Bay Residents Say Race Relations Worse Elsewhere, OK at Home

TAMPA -- A new survey on race relations in the Tampa Bay area finds black and white residents think they're getting worse around the nation, but not around here.

According to the survey of 450 residents of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties for the Tampa Bay Partnership, 59 percent of local residents believe that race relations overall are getting worse. About a fifth of respondents say they're getting better, and about the same percentage says they're staying the same. 69 percent of African-American respondents say they're worsening, compared with 55 percent of whites.

But on the local level, 72 percent of respondents say race relations are generally good, while 28 percent say generally bad. Among Black residents, the figures are 59 and 41 percent.

When asked whether "too little", "too much", or "the right amount" of attention is paid to racial issues, 64 percent of African-American respondents said "too little", while white respondents split equally among the three options.

45 percent of respondents say it has become more common for people to make racially insensitive comments, while 31 percent say it is less common.

There is some divergence of attitudes on the Black Lives Matter movement. Overall, 67 percent of residents either "strongly" or "somewhat" support BLM, while 33 percent somewhat or strongly oppose it.

76 percent of Black respondents say systemic racism holds African-Americans back, compared with 65 percent of whites 91 percent of African-Americans either strongly or somewhat support BLM. 43 percent of white residents either strongly or somewhat oppose BLM.

The survey oversampled black respondents to make sure that a smaller sample size didn't make the numbers less reliable, then adjusted for the Tampa Bay area's demographic profile.

Photo: Getty Images


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