Is racism on the rise in the USA?
Executive summary
Public officials and institutions are framing racism in the U.S. as a growing or at least persistent crisis: both the House and Senate resolutions declare that racism “meets the criteria of a public health crisis” and say it is “continuing to increase” [1] [2]. Surveys and advocacy groups show mixed signals — many immigrants and people of color report increased discrimination or harms [3] [4], while some public opinion measures show partisan shifts in whether discrimination is perceived as rising [5] [6].
1. Political declarations: Congress and public-health framing
In 2025 both a House and a Senate resolution explicitly state that racism meets the criteria of a public‑health crisis because it “affects many people, is seen as a threat to the public, and is continuing to increase” [1] [2]. Those texts place institutional weight behind the claim that racism is rising and emphasize health impacts such as hypertension, anxiety and depression linked to racist discrimination [1] [2]. The existence of these resolutions signals that lawmakers and some public‑health experts view racism as an active and expanding societal problem [1] [2].
2. Lived experiences: immigrants and people of color reporting increased harms
Surveyed immigrants report concrete increases in incidents and impacts: about 35% say immigration enforcement has had a direct negative impact on their families, citing “increased racism” among effects [3]. Human Rights Watch documents large numbers of police killings and immigration‑policy harms in 2024–25, reporting that police killed 1,225 people nationwide as of November 2024 and highlighting border enforcement practices with deadly consequences [4]. These sources show specific communities reporting more hostile environments and harms that respondents describe as racism [3] [4].
3. Public opinion: partisan divergence and stability in perceptions
National polling finds layered, sometimes contradictory patterns. Pew’s 2025 survey shows that majorities still say Black, Hispanic and Asian people face at least some discrimination, but Republicans in 2025 were less likely than in 2024 to say these groups face a lot or some discrimination — a decline of roughly 10 percentage points in Republican perceptions [5] [6]. Gallup reporting indicates Black adults in 2025 consistently express the highest perception of unfair treatment, and a majority of Americans still believe racism against Black people is widespread [7]. Thus perceptions of racism’s prevalence vary by race and political identification even as many people of color report ongoing or heightened unfair treatment [5] [6] [7].
4. Policy debates and organized campaigns: Project 2025 and civil‑rights groups
Advocacy organizations warn that policy agendas could increase racial harms. The NAACP and Thurgood Marshall Institute frame Project 2025 as likely to worsen policing, incarceration, educational inequities, and environmental injustices that disproportionately harm Black communities [8] [9] [10]. Commentators also tie rhetoric from state leaders and political aides to hardening attitudes toward migrants and people of color [11]. These sources argue that policy shifts and political messaging can either exacerbate or mitigate racial harms depending on choices made [8] [9] [11].
5. Data limitations and what the sources do not settle
Available sources document perceptions, reported experiences, policy proposals, and official declarations; they do not provide a single, trend‑line metric showing a national increase or decrease in racism across every dimension. For example, congressional resolutions and advocacy groups assert increases [1] [2] [8], immigrant surveys report heightened experiences [3], and watchdogs document police killings [4], but polling reveals partisan shifts in whether people perceive discrimination is rising [5] [6]. The sources do not include a comprehensive time‑series measurement that definitively quantifies whether racism as a whole is increasing numerically across all forms (not found in current reporting).
6. What to watch next — indicators that would clarify the trend
To judge whether racism is rising, policymakers and reporters should watch (a) victimization and hate‑crime statistics over time; (b) repeated, representative surveys of lived experiences across demographic groups; (c) enforcement and policy changes (e.g., immigration, policing, education) that advocacy groups link to increased harms; and (d) official responses such as resolutions and agency actions. The sources already point to rising concerns in immigrant surveys and to legislative debates over agendas like Project 2025 [3] [8] [9], while public opinion polls show shifting perceptions by party [5] [6].
Conclusion: Sources show earnest institutional and community claims that racism is a continuing and in some cases increasing problem — embodied in congressional resolutions and immigrant and watchdog reports [1] [2] [3] [4] — but public‑opinion data reveal partisan divergence and no single, undisputed numeric trend across all measures [5] [6] [7].