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A new poll released Wednesday by the National Bar Association reveals both Blacks and Whites agree that African-Americans are treated differently by law enforcement.

According to USA Today, the survey explains: “88% of blacks believe black people are treated unfairly by police, compared to 59% of whites who share that view.”

From the Tallahassee Democrat:

… more whites, 67 percent, compared to blacks, 52 percent, said police are misunderstood by black people. Those views are consistent across most regions for whites, but in the Northeast, a national low of 35 percent of blacks agreed. In the South, 70 percent of whites agree compared to 58 percent of blacks. In the South, those differences are even more stark. In the South, considered to be the region stretching from Florida to Delaware, it’s a view held by 90 percent of blacks but just 55 percent of whites. In the Northeast, by comparison, the gap is much narrower — 74 percent of blacks say police treat blacks unfairly compared to 63 percent of whites.

During Wednesday’s edition of TV One’s NewsOne Now, Roland Martin and the Straight Talk Panel dissected the findings of the National Bar Association survey.

“The problem is that we are getting treated differently, unfairly, and often times our lives are at stake as a result. The fact that two-thirds of White people also believe that is highly disturbing to me,” NewsOne Now panelist Avis Jones-DeWeever told Martin.

Later during the segment, Jones-DeWeever explained that unconscious bias also should be taken into account when discussing how Blacks are treated by police officers.

“…the literature on this is just completely clear. People naturally, their brains naturally tend to assume that Blackness equals danger. People naturally also tend to assume that Blackness also always assumes imperviousness to pain – we’re less likely to feel pain. So if that is your predisposition to think that we’re naturally dangerous, to think that we don’t feel pain, then you are going to over-exaggerate the amount of violence that’s perpetuated against us, and you’re not going to believe there is something wrong with that.”

Watch Martin and the NewsOne Now Straight Talk Panel discuss the findings of the National Bar Association poll in the video clip above.

Mark your calendars! TV One NewsOne Now moves to 7 A.M. ET starting Monday September 14th. Until then, be sure to watch “NewsOne Now” with Roland Martin, weekdays at 9 a.m. EST on TV One.

Subscribe to the “NewsOne Now” Audio Podcast on iTunes.

SEE ALSO:

DOJ Releases Final Report On Ferguson Unrest Detailing More Than 100 Lessons

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POLL: Blacks & Whites Agree — Police Treat African-Americans Differently  was originally published on newsone.com