While a majority of Americans now approve of how President Obama is handling race relations in the country, more Americans still think relations between blacks and whites have gotten worse under Mr. Obama than those who think they’ve gotten better or stayed the same, a new CNN/ORC poll said.

Forty-three percent of Americans said they think relations have gotten worse, 20 percent said they think they’ve gotten better, and 36 percent said they think they’ve stayed the same.

Thirty-three percent of blacks said they think relations have gotten better, 35 percent said they’ve gotten worse, and 32 percent said they’ve stayed the same. Seventeen percent of whites said they think they’ve gotten better, 47 percent said they think they’ve gotten worse, and 35 percent said they think they’ve stayed the same.

Still, 55 percent of Americans overall said they approve of Mr. Obama’s handling of race relations compared to 42 percent who said they disapprove, up slightly from a 50 percent/47 percent split in May. The approve/disapprove breakdown for the June poll was 84 percent/14 percent among blacks and 48 percent/47 percent among whites.

In a poll taken in February, 15 percent of Americans said they thought relations had gotten better, compared to 39 percent who said they’ve gotten worse and 45 percent who said they’ve stayed the same.

Twenty-five percent of blacks said then that they’ve gotten better, 26 percent said they’ve gotten worse and 47 percent said they’ve stayed the same. Eleven percent of whites said then they’ve gotten better, 45 percent said they’ve gotten worse, and 44 percent said they’ve stayed the same.

Nearly three-quarters of Americans said racial discrimination against blacks is a “very” or “somewhat” serious problem in the country, compared to 16 percent who said it was “not too serious” and 9 percent who said it was “not at all serious.”

Eighty percent of blacks said it was a “very” serious problem, compared to 15 percent who said it was “somewhat” serious and a total of 5 percent who said it was not too serious or not at all serous.

Twenty-eight percent of whites said it was “very” serious, 40 percent said it was “somewhat” serious, 19 percent said it was “not too” serious, and 12 percent said it was “not at all” serious.

Among a subsample of 303 black respondents, 24 percent said they feel discriminated against because they are black “every day.”

Six percent said “every week,” 15 percent said “about once a month,” 17 percent said “a few times a year,” 14 percent said “less than once a year,” and 23 percent said they never feel discriminated against.

The overall survey of 1,017 adult Americans was taken June 26-28 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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