Racial Views Of Blacks And Whites Are Far Apart

President Obama addressed the racial problems in this country at the memorial for the slain Dallas Police officers on Tuesday. It was one of his best speeches as he pointed out the problems faced by both the police and minorities in this country. He called for a real dialogue to bring the country together.

Unfortunately, that may be a lot harder than anyone expects. That's because the views in this country on how Blacks are treated vary widely between Blacks and Whites. As the chart above shows, only about 50% of Whites believe Blacks are treated unfairly by the police, while 84% of Blacks believe that.  And the perception of mistreatment for Blacks goes down among Whites from there.

We do need a dialogue to solve the racial problems in this country, but we will never have that dialogue until Whites recognize that the problem exists -- and sadly they don't see it yet (or at least aren't willing to admit the problem exists).

That is very troubling to me. I am white, and to me it seems obvious that we are far from solving the country's racial problems. Racism still exists, and it exists not just in the minds of too many Whites, but in the institutions of our society (mostly controlled by Whites). I am ashamed of my fellow Whites who don't want to admit this. Are they trying to protect their White privilege advantage? Or do they just not care about the equality guaranteed in our Constitution?

The chart above is from a survey done by the Pew Research Center -- done between February 29th and May 8th of a random national sample of 3,769 adults, with a margin of error of 2.2 points (including 1,799 Whites with a margin of error of 3 points, and 1,004 Blacks with a margin of error of 3.9 points).