Poll: Many Americans have no friends outside their race

A new poll has shown that American relationships are more segregated than less than a decade ago, with 40 percent of American whites having no non-white friends.

According to an online Reuters/Ipsos poll, 40 percent of whites and 25 percent of non-whites have no friends outside their race.

The poll also found that 20 percent of whites said they had five or more close friends of different races while 36 percent of non-whites said the same.

“There has been some progress, but whites and blacks in particular still tend to live in separate neighborhoods,” said Camille Zubrinsky Charles, a professor of sociology and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

The poll reported more segregation than a 2004 survey by Gallup that asked people a similar question, a sign that relationships may have become more segregated in the United States.

Many people in the US continue to have some prejudices against other races. Figures reveal that racial attitudes have not improved in the US since the country elected its first black president Barack Obama.

According to an Associated Press poll released last year, 51 percent of Americans now express explicit anti-black attitudes, compared with 48 percent in a similar 2008 survey.

The poll results also showed that most Americans express anti-Hispanic sentiments as the number of non-Hispanic whites who express anti-Hispanic attitudes rose from 52 to 57 percent in the implicit test, compared to a 2011 survey.

“[There] is growing polarization within American society,” said Fredrick Harris, director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University.