A Gallup poll published on Wednesday found 42 percent of Americans agree that relations between the two racial groups are 'very' or 'somewhat' good as opposed to 57 percent who believe they are 'somewhat' or 'very' bad.
Last year, the same poll found black-white relations for 44 percent positive in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder and the subsequent nationwide protests and calls for racial justice.
In addition, only 40 percent of black adults are optimistic there will ever be racial harmony, as opposed to 60 percent of white adults, according to the poll by Gallup - a Washington DC-based analytics and advisory company.
'This is the largest gap recorded in Gallup's three-decade trend, and it is particularly striking given that it comes on the heels of a 10-point uptick in black Americans' optimism last year,' the Gallup company wrote in its report.
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Black-white relations in the United States have eroded since 2013, when 70 percent of adults said they believed the two racial groups had a positive relationship.
By 2015, that number fell drastically to 53 percent and has continued to decline ever since.
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The poll fails to pinpoint the reason for the sudden drop from 2013 to 2015, but America went through a racial reckoning in Ferguson in the weeks following August 9, 2014, when Michael Brown, 18, was fatally shot by white police officer Darren Wilson.
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That kicked off a string of police shootings of black Americans and led to the formation of multiple social justice movements, such as Black Lives Matter.
In the last two years, cities have hosted countless peaceful protests for peace. But some of the protests have turned into violent riots that included looting and violence. Far left- and right-wing extremist groups have become more prevalent and clashed several times.
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Views on racism’s impact seem to reflect the nation’s deep political divide.
A new Hidden Common Ground survey by Public Agenda and USA TODAY shows stark partisan differences over whether racism is a barrier to participation in the political process and whether addressing racism requires systemic change.
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A majority of Democrats, independents and politically unaffiliated Americans surveyed say racism can make it difficult for some Americans to participate in civic and political life. An overwhelming number of Republicans say all Americans have an equal opportunity to participate regardless of race.
“For sure, it’s a barrier,” Haleigh Mooney, 26, a Democrat and freelance artist in Orlando, Florida, says in a follow-up interview with USA TODAY.
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