As Bill Bradley once said, "Slavery was America's original sin, and racism remains its unresolved dilemma."

Unquestionably, we're a long way from slavery. An African American is secretary of state. The chief executive officer of American Express Co. is black. Two African American coaches squared off in Super Bowl XL. And the most popular figure on TV is Oprah Winfrey, a black woman.

Yet the United States remains a deeply divided nation along racial lines. Not surprisingly, we saw this divide in the reaction to the O.J. Simpson murder acquittal. Surprisingly, we saw it in polls about the federal government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina. Confounding almost everyone, we saw it in pre-indictment polls about Barry Bonds' chase of Hank Aaron's home-run record.

We saw it yet again earlier this month in a major poll on black progress conducted by the Pew Research Center.

"The survey suggests that there is widespread perception in the black community that encounters with antiblack bias are common in the day-to-day lives of blacks," the report stated. "Fully two-thirds (68 percent) say African Americans frequently face discrimination in two or more of the activities tested," which included applying for a job, renting an apartment or buying a house, applying to college, and shopping or eating in a restaurant.

By contrast, 63 percent of whites say blacks do not experience racism in any of the four areas tested, and 45 percent of Latinos agreed. If the numbers aren't lying - and I don't think they are - that's one big, stubborn divide.

If blacks, whites and Latinos can't agree on the extent of racial discrimination, how are we going to solve the problem?

Interestingly, better-educated African Americans are more, rather than less, likely to believe discrimination exists than their less erudite counterparts: "Fully three-quarters of all blacks who have graduated from college say blacks often face racism when applying for jobs, a view expressed by about 6 in 10 (61 percent) blacks with a high-school degree or less. Nearly as large a gap emerges between the better and less well-educated on perceptions of housing discrimination. But on other questions, the difference between those with the most and least education are more modest."

That difference may seem puzzling, since those with more education are afforded more employment opportunities. One explanation might be that better-educated African Americans experience more discrimination as they seek to climb the corporate ladder. Blacks with less education, on the other hand, are less likely even to get such chances, so this race tension nearer the top will be less apparent to them.

But let's accept for the moment the notion that racism does not explain the failure of some individuals from less-represented groups to get ahead. What does explain it?

Again, polls indicate a big divide.

"Overall, most whites (71 percent), Hispanics (59 percent) and a narrow majority of blacks (53 percent) believe that blacks who have not gotten ahead in life are mainly responsible for their own situation," according to the poll. Almost one-third of blacks - 30 percent - blame racism for their failure to advance, a position supported by 24 percent of Hispanics and 15 percent of whites.

I don't think this is purely a black-and-white issue. Sure, individual efforts account for much, if not most, of one's success. But other factors, such as quality of education or degree of segregation in one's neighborhood, affect one's chances of getting ahead.

What clearly emerges from the Pew study is a need for better cross-racial understanding. And there have been some meaningful steps in that direction. For example, a majority of the public now appears to believe, if polls are any indication, that the values held by blacks and whites have become more similar over the last decade. Further, a Pew study released in 2005 showed that 22 percent of all Americans have a close relative married to someone of a different race.

But the divide persists, and we're all probably helping it in some way. The news media surely are. Efforts to bridge the racial divide are often hampered by the media's frequent use of inflammatory terms when discussing such hot-button issues as affirmative action. Like other polls, the Pew survey found that most Americans favor affirmative-action programs "designed to help blacks get better jobs and education." Many media outlets, however, have alternated between using the term affirmative action and the term preferences - a misleading term popular with affirmative-action opponents.

Here's what the poll found when that substitution is made: "Overall, 9 in 10 blacks (89 percent) and about three-quarters of all Hispanics (77 percent) support giving African Americans assistance to further their education or careers. Slightly more than half of all whites (52 percents) also support such minority-assistance programs, while 37 percent oppose.

"But if the word preferences is included in the question, support for affirmative action drops by double-digit margins among whites (-13 percentage points). Instead of a majority of whites supporting affirmative action, a 47 percent plurality opposes it, while 39 percent express support."

We have a long way to go in race relations, including learning how to talk about our different perceptions.