More than half of all Black Americans report being mistreated in 2021, according to a Gallup report published July 27.
Respondents were presented with the following question, “Can you think of any occasion in the last 30 days when you felt you were treated unfairly in the following places because you were a Black person?”
The highest percentage of “yes” responses were “in a store where you were shopping,” with 35% saying they had been mistreated in that context. This is an 11-point increase from 2020, and a new high in Gallup’s polling.
By comparison, 21% said they had been treated unfairly “in a restaurant, bar, theater or other entertainment place” (up three points), 20% “in dealings with police, such as traffic incidents” (up one point), 17% “while getting health care for yourself or family member” (up four points) and 17% “at your place of work” (unchanged).
Overall, 54% of respondents said they had been treated unfairly in at least one of these scenarios. This is a nine-point increase from last year.
“In general, Black Americans are no less likely to report being treated unfairly in any of the five situations now than they were when Gallup first asked the items in 1997. The health care item was first asked in 2004,” the report said.
Hispanics, by comparison, were less likely than Blacks to report mistreatment, with 34% saying they had been treated unfairly in one of the five contexts polled.
This is nine-points higher than the 2015 total and two points above the 2013 total – the only times Gallup polled Hispanic Americans on this question.
Restaurants, bars, theaters or places of entertainment were the most likely contexts for Hispanics to report mistreatment (19% did so), followed by while shopping (16%), when getting health care (13%), at work (12%) and during police interactions (11%).
The margin of error is plus-or-minus 7%.
The full report is available here. The topline results are available here.
Managing editor for news and opinion at Good Faith Media.
