Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Poll finds NYers pessimistic on race, sexual harassment

A poll on New Yorkers' attitudes on racism and sexual harassment show that many believe society has a way to go to improve things.

The Siena College survey finds that 36 percent of women report being the victims of workplace sexual harassment. Siena spokesman Steve Greenberg said that when it comes to the issue, there is no upstate-downstate divide or difference in political parties, and three-quarters of New Yorkers think it’s a significant problem.

“Those are just staggering numbers,” Greenberg said.

The Siena poll finds that nearly two-thirds of  New Yorkers think race relations are just fair or poor, a number that’s up from polls conducted earlier in the decade. And 29 percent say they think they’ve been treated unfairly in the past year because of their race, ethnicity gender or sexual orientation.

Karen DeWitt is Capitol Bureau chief for the New York Public News Network, composed of a dozen newsrooms across the state. She has covered state government and politics for the network since 1990.