The public outrage over the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray and others has brought to light the often-unheeded reality of racial tension here in the United States. The nation witnessed the pain, grief, and indignation among African Americans as protests began in cities like Ferguson and Baltimore and spread across the country sparking the “Black Lives Matter” movement. But this movement has met with a mixed response, reflecting a deeper divide on how Americans view the problem of race in this country.

So what are the contours of this divide? And what do Americans really believe about the Black Lives Matter movement? To explore the issue in more detail, Barna Group asked American adults about their experience with race. Is there anger and hostility between different ethnic and racial groups? Is racism a problem of the past, or the present? Do people feel disadvantaged because of their race or ethnicity? Can the church play a role in racial reconciliation, or is the church part of the problem?

Racial Tension Today More than 50 years after the March on Washington, work to heal the wounds of hundreds of years of racial injustice remains to be done. When American adults are asked whether they believe racial tension exists, the answer to that question is a resounding “yes.” The vast majority of adults agree there is a lot of anger and hostility between ethnic and racial groups in America (84%). This was true—and remarkably so—across the board. No matter the age group, region, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or faith segment, the vast majority among each group believe there is tension among racial and ethnic groups in this country.

But when asked more specifically about racism, that is, “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior,” the results were slightly different. There were two big standouts here, the first being evangelicals, who were almost twice as likely than the general population to agree strongly that “racism is mostly a problem of the past, not the present” (13% compared to all adults at 7%, or “no faith” at 3%). The other group with a high proportion of respondents agreeing that racism is mostly a problem of the past is conservatives at 12 percent, which is also interesting considering the comparison to liberals at 4 percent. Conservatives are those who identify as mostly conservative, and Democrats are those who identify as mostly liberal when it comes to political issues.

Looking at this question from a different angle—those who strongly disagree that “racism is mostly a problem of the past, not the present”—we see some differences between black and white Americans. 42 percent of the general population strongly disagree that racism is a problem of the past, and although both black white Americans share that sentiment, black Americans (59%) are twenty percentage points more likely to that racism is history than white Americans (39%)