Americans’ perceptions of widespread racism against blacks remain elevated this year after an uptick last year, likely in response to the highly publicized incidents in which black men were killed in confrontations with white police officers in 2014 and early 2015. The increase in perceptions of racism against blacks in 2015 was not as dramatic as the changes in Americans’ assessments of black-white relations in last year’s survey, for example, perhaps because the majority of Americans already thought racism was widespread.

There have been more recent deadly encounters between police and citizens this summer, including incidents in Dallas and Louisiana in which black men shot and killed white police officers, but those occurred after interviewing for the poll finished July 1.

Both blacks and whites are more likely to say racism against blacks is widespread today than they were in October 2009, during the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency. Now, 82% of blacks and 56% of whites say racism against blacks is widespread, reflecting increases of 10 and seven percentage points, respectively.