FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
As the national debate over the killing of Trayvon Martin rages on, a new poll suggests that a majority of Americans believe the country is divided by race.
The Newsweek/Daily Beast poll shows that 72% of whites and 89% of blacks say the country is racially divided.
And almost four years after the election of the nation's first black president, majorities of whites and blacks say race relations have either stayed the same or gotten worse.
There continue to be fundamental disagreements about when blacks will achieve racial equality. Whites are much more likely to think blacks have the same chance as they do to get housing and jobs.
As for the killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black Florida teen, there are more differences along racial lines. Blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to say Martin's death was racially motivated. African-Americans are convinced that Martin was targeted because he was a young black man, while whites are divided.
Blacks overwhelmingly approve of how President Obama has handled the controversy, while a majority of whites disapprove.
The differences go on and on. It’s a sad statement on race relations in the U.S. in 2012.
Meanwhile, in the latest from Sanford, Florida, the special prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin shooting case has decided not to take the case to a grand jury. She says that she's never used a grand jury in similar cases and that the investigation continues.
The attorney for shooter George Zimmerman calls it a "courageous move."
You can bet this decision will fan the racial flames even further. Already, thousands have joined the Florida protests calling for Zimmerman's arrest.
Here’s my question to you: How racially divided is the United States today?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Dave in Idaho:
Racial tension is the dark side of the land of the free and the home of the brave. The fact that it hasn't torn us apart in 236 years is encouraging; the fact that it won't go away disheartening. How divided are we? Depends on the day I guess.
Lou:
I just don't buy that we're more racially divided now. I think sometimes the media misses the mark on what their viewers are feeling over events. With most of the folks I've talked with, the Trayvon shooting had more to do with the outrage over the out of control gun laws in this country than it ever did about race. A teen died needlessly. Doesn't matter what color he was.
Dee:
Coming from someone from a small southern town where the city cemetery has a fence up that STILL divides the whites from the "coloreds" in the year 2012, I'd say that yes this country is still racially divided, apparently in my hometown even in death. Our country has come a long way, but whether we want to admit it or not, race is still the final frontier that no one really wants to talk about honestly or openly because unfortunately, this is who we are as a nation.
Metalworker in Illinois:
Extremely so. After the 2008 election of an African- American president, the country regressed a hundred years or more. I am 76 and I do not remember such hatred as now.
Barbara in North Carolina:
Well, we have whites, blacks, and rednecks. I'd say pretty divided. It's a shame. Some of the smartest, most civil people I know are black, and some of the dumbest, most uncivilized are white. It's really a shame. (For the record, I'm an old white woman who knows some from each of the above categories - and more).
Bob in Iowa:
The same amount as it was yesterday and the days before that. When did you think it wasn't?