Perhaps efforts to stir up racial division haven’t been quite as successful as it seems. A new poll shows that Americans feel race relations have generally improved since the summer of 2020, when the nation wrestled with the death of George Floyd.
A new NBC News poll found that Americans feel race relations have gotten better over the past six years, when protests and riots broke out after Floyd’s death.
Today, 48 percent of adults say race relations are generally good, which represents a 20-point increase since 2020. Still, 50 percent say they are still generally bad. Only about seven percent indicated race relations were “very good.”
Views on the matter differ by race. White Americans are more optimistic than black Americans. Halin Byrd, a 22-year-old black man, told NBC News, that race relations “have regressed” and that “Everybody just feels like they can just say whatever they want, for any type of racist slur. Everybody’s more comfortable now.”
A white male disagreed, saying “Everyone doesn’t care about race.” Another white man argued that people of different races are “way more divided” than they should be and blamed the media for exacerbating racial tensions.
Race has become increasingly prevalent in political conversations over the past few decades. Much of it came from the left, which saw in the early 2000s that they could weaponize race against their political opponents. Democrats increasingly resorted to abandoning civil discourse and chose to simply pretend those who oppose their politics are motivated by racial animus.
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The problem escalated when former President Barack Obama was elected. From the moment he became the Democratic nominee, the media salivated at the prospect of dismissing any criticism of Obama as racism.
The tactic lost much of its luster as people began to realize Democrats did not view racism as a societal evil to be addressed, but a cudgel to be used against people expressing dissenting views. Still, it remains a staple of political discourse and social media is now contributing to the problem with race relations.
Algorithms are increasingly showing white people attacking Black people, and now Jewish people are being targeted. This pattern suggests a deliberate attempt to provoke racial unrest and social chaos. #SocialUnrest #Algorithm #Provocation pic.twitter.com/u4tz2og0Kc
— Mr. Viral 💻🔥 (@MrViralHimself) June 12, 2026
Several social media platforms have come under fire for allowing racist views to become more prominent. Some point out that their algorithms are built in a way that pushes divisive and outrage-inducing content that stirs strong emotions. It’s how they keep users scrolling through the site and engaging in the division.
BBC reported that internal research at Meta found that comments under Instagram Reels had 19 percent more “hate speech” and 75 percent more bullying and harassment than posts on the main feed. Berkeley News showed that “hate speech” on X increased about 50 percent in the months after Elon Musk took it over.
The issue has prompted folks on the left in the United States and European nations to call for more government involvement in regulating these platforms and how they moderate content. Opponents point out that such an idea would threaten the right to free speech.
The reality is that in real life, most people get along regardless of race. Those who are not chronically online have been largely inoculated from the vitriol one can easily find on social media and other digital platforms. The phrase “Twitter isn’t real life” is still true — for now.
With younger generations increasingly being attached to screens, they are getting inundated with a barrage of posts, videos, and messages aimed at fomenting racial division. One can go on X for only a few minutes and find a deluge of racist sentiments against all racial groups.
Given the fact that young people are increasingly getting their news online, it’s easy to see how this could create an environment in which everyone is falling into manufactured racial outrage.
Several influencers have taken advantage of this trend, using it to get clout, clicks, and cash. This can be seen in the case of an online personality named Chud the Builder, who gained notoriety for filming himself approaching black men on the street and calling them the “n-word” and other racial slurs.
Unfortunately for Chud, this tendency resulted in his arrest after he shot a black man in front of a courthouse. A judge recently suspended his bond, meaning he will remain incarcerated for the duration of his trial.
Race relations remain fraught in America — at least when it comes to the digital realm. But the phrase “Twitter isn’t real life” can only be true for so long. As younger generations come up getting the false impression that whites and nonwhites are at each other’s throats, it could only be a matter of time before this becomes a reality.
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