Racial prejudice in the United States is more widespread now than when Barack Obama became the country's first black president in a historic 2008 vote, a new survey claims

In a poll of racial attitudes, researchers found that more Americans have attitudes that are both implicit and explicitly racist than when the same survey was conducted four years ago. In all, 51% of Americans now express explicit anti-black attitudes, compared with 48% four years ago, the study showed. When measured by an implicit racial attitudes test, the number of Americans with anti-black sentiments jumped to 56%, up from 49% during the last presidential election. A majority of Americans expressed anti-Hispanic sentiments, too. In a survey done in 2011, 52% of non-Hispanic whites expressed anti-Hispanic attitudes. That figure had risen to 57% in the implicit test in 2012. The survey also found that some 79% of Republicans expressed explicit racial prejudice compared to 32% of Democrats. The implicit test too showed that 64% of Republicans had racial prejudice compared to 55% of Democrats, while independents came in at 49%. The Pew Charitable Trust showed that some 68% of middle class black Americans are predicted to see their economic status decline in the next generation. The National Urban League civil rights group also showed from 2009 to 2012 median annual household income for blacks dropped by 11.1%, compared to a drop of just 5.2% for whites and 4.1% for Hispanics. The current black unemployment rate of 14% is roughly twice that of the white jobless rate. Racial segregation between white and black men is increasing in one-in-six industries.