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Over the years, the NBC News poll has tested one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic lines from his "I Have a Dream" speech — that America becomes a nation where people are judged by their character, not by the color of their skin.
And for the first time since 2008, less than half of all Americans believe that’s currently true of the United States, the latest NBC News survey finds.
Just 47% of all respondents agree with the statement that America is a nation where people are judged by their character, not their skin color, while 52% disagree.
That’s a shift from 2009 and 2010 (when 60% agreed that people are judged by their character), as well as from 2015 (when 54% agreed).
The year 2015 was the last time the NBC News poll asked this question.
The current poll finds sharp differences by race on this question.
Fifty-three percent of white respondents say they believe people are judged by their character — and not skin color — in the United States, versus just 20% of Black respondents and 39% of Latinos who think this.
The NBC News poll was conducted April 14-18 of 1,000 adults — including 861 reached by cell phone — and it has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.