ABOUT THIS STORY: There are growing concerns that new expressions of racism have found their way into American culture.
The Beacon Journal heard it in focus groups held last year as part of the America Today project.
While an all-white group expressed the belief that race relations had gotten better, an all-black group thought otherwise and offered specific examples of how they experience new forms of racism. They said they hear new code words and see unusual hatred directed toward a president who is black.
Whites are oblivious to the troubling trend, they said.
An Associated Press survey bears out the black perceptions. The survey, conducted two months prior to Obama’s election in 2008 and again prior to the 2012 election, shows that 51 percent of the general population expresses outright anti-black sentiment, up from 48 percent in 2008. When questions were evaluated for indirect expressions of racism, the anti-black sentiment became worse.
To continue the public discussion of race, the Beacon Journal turned to a young group for their perceptions.
