Two-thirds of Black Americans expect race relations to worsen in the United States after the election of Donald Trump, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

“I think the survey confirms what most people already knew. I think Trump has helped to normalize certain forms of discourse that will end up creating more division between black folks and white folks. Trump has already and will continue to embolden people to participate in hate speech and even go as far as committing hate crimes,” says Keenen McMurray, an African American second year student at Felician University.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes in the U.S., did indeed see an uptick of hate crime complaints since Trump’s election. According to SPLV president Richard Cohen, along with anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant incidents, anti-black incidents are increasing.

Though the survey showed that a whopping 43% of white voters expect race relations to worsen after Trump’s election, compared to just 10% in 2008 after President Obama’s election, it was still a significant difference compared to 74% of Black Americans expecting it to get worse.

“The black community is generally more pessimistic on this topic, and for good reason, McMurray said. “Racism and bigotry are real threats to people who belong to marginalized groups, whereas for white folks, it’s something that happens to other people. That isn’t to say that they all simply don’t care, but as a whole they don’t really understand the threat that racism and prejudice poses because they’ve never had to face it themselves.”

The survey also showed an almost complete reversal of views on race relations following President Obama’s election in 2008. 49% of white voters expected race relations to get better under President Obama and 75% of African Americans expected race relations to get better. These numbers beg the question: In hindsight, did the election of President Obama actually lead to better race relations?

“In a local sense, we seem to have seen a regression in race relations rather than the progress that Obama’s two elections seemed to show at the national level,” says Dr. Durahn Taylor, a professor at Pace University who teaches a course on Black American culture and history.

“On the one hand, Obama’s election brought national and international attention to America’s progress in the area of race relations; the fact that the nation could elect an African-American President was unthinkable a generation earlier. It brought awareness about African-American history to the nation,” Taylor said.

However, Taylor says that awareness has also brought up issues some Americans prefer not to deal with. He cites ongoing tension between police and minorities in local communities as an example.

“The recent police shootings, and the emergence of movements such as the “Black Lives Matter” movement have opened up arguments that often take the form of ‘police vs. minorities’ instead of looking for ways in which police and citizens can work together to provide peace,” Taylor said.

According to a CNN poll done in October, 54% of Americans believes relations between black Americans and white Americans have gotten worse since Obama became president, including 57% of white Americans and 40% of black Americans. This a significant difference from the Pew Research Center survey that showed 10% of white Americans and less than one percent of black Americans expected race relations to get worse under Obama.

McMurray believes race relations have regressed under President Obama’s presidency, but not due to him particularly.

“I think a lot of people viewed having a black man in such a powerful position was harmful to what their ideal societal power structure is,” McMurray said. “Him being somewhat more progressive on certain racial issues may have even drove people deeper into their insecurities than they originally were after his election.”

One of the most popular messages during then Senator Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign was a poster that featured Obama and the word “hope.” Taylor believes there is still some hope for African Americans who are pessimistic about the upcoming Trump administration.

“Many will see Trump’s emergence as President a sign of a regression in race relations on the national level, but who knows whether or not it might spur greater efforts for interracial cooperation at the local level? Presidents, as we know, are not the only people in society who shape history,” Taylor said.

Taylor believes grass roots movements have proven to be powerful agents in pushing a society’s politics one way or another.

“We saw this happen during the Obama administration, as groups that both favored and opposed him made their voices heard, and there’s certainly room for the same thing to happen during the Trump presidency.”

Taylor mentioned that it would be great if Trump does a “complete 180” and changes his position on certain policies pertaining to African Americans. He cited Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson as examples of presidents who completely changed their position on civil rights once they became presidents.

McMurray is not so optimistic about President-elect Trump. He not only believes Trump will not be a good president for black Americans, but for all Americans.

“I don’t think Trump will be a good president for anyone. He’s a kleptocrat whose only interest is using the office of his presidency to enrich himself and all of his millionaire and billionaire friends. We’re in for the greatest transfer of wealth to the 1 percent in the history of our nation. Unfortunately, black people will probably be the biggest victims of this,” McMurray said.

On election night, CNN’s Van Jones famously called the election of Trump a “whitelash” to racial progress. McMurray agrees with that assessment.

“There’s a long history of black people making significant progress in this country just to eventually take two steps backwards because of the racism of the greater society, and Trump’s election following Obama’s presidency is the ultimate example of that,” McMurray said.

However, Taylor believes regardless if President-elect Trump turns out to be a racially progressive president or not, it is on the public to make progress in race relations.

“For those of us concerned about the status of race relations and civil rights at this point in our history, we must remember something that was just as true in the era of Frederick Douglass as in the era of Martin Luther King: Civil rights progress doesn’t begin in the White House, but in our own house,” Taylor said.

Taylor noted that the Civil Rights movement did not begin with government, but rather with the public.

“It takes the initiative and persistence of people at the grass-roots level to seek and maintain individual freedoms,” Taylor said.

“We are both a democracy and a republic and we have taken pride in the fact that since 1776 we have not lived under a monarchy. Yet, that carries a responsibility that the public often forgets: When it comes to maintaining ‘liberty and justice for all,’ it’s not ultimately on our leaders to do that. As the saying goes, it’s on us.”