{"id":3468,"date":"2020-09-19T15:16:34","date_gmt":"2020-09-19T15:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=3468"},"modified":"2020-09-19T15:16:34","modified_gmt":"2020-09-19T15:16:34","slug":"support-for-black-lives-matter-surged-during-protests-but-is-waning-among-white-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=3468","title":{"rendered":"Support For Black Lives Matter Surged During Protests, But Is Waning Among White Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“The recent protests against police brutality are some of the largest and most widespread in American history<\/a>. An estimated 15 million to 26 million<\/a> Americans have taken to the streets to protest police violence and advocate for Black lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The remarkable size and scope of these demonstrations has translated into real policy gains, too. Dozens of state and local police reforms<\/a> have been enacted since the protests started. And at the federal level, President Trump signed an executive order that<\/a> outlines his administration\u2019s priorities for police reform, including creating a national database that catalogues police misconduct. The House of Representatives passed an even more ambitious piece of legislation<\/a> that proposes a series of reforms, like tying federal funding to bans on chokeholds and setting up a task force to address excessive police force, but the GOP-controlled Senate hasn\u2019t taken it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arguably, though, the protests\u2019 impact on public opinion has been even more immediate and wide-ranging. Unfavorable views of the police, acknowledgement of widespread discrimination against African Americans and support for Black Lives Matter all jumped up by at least 10 percentage points, according to tracking polls conducted shortly before and after the protests by both Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape<\/a> and Civiqs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These changes in public opinion are being driven in large part by white Americans, who for years have been much less likely than Black Americans to acknowledge that racial inequality<\/a> remains a real problem<\/a>. Since the first wave of large-scale Black Lives Matter protests<\/a> in 2014, white Americans\u2019 racial attitudes<\/a> have gradually become more liberalized while Black Americans\u2019 views have remained relatively steady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s many offensive statements<\/a> may be contributing to this trend, as they seem to be driving Democrats, particularly white Democrats<\/a>, to adopt more liberal views on race in response. That\u2019s one reason so many white Democrats showed up at the most recent protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the protests\u2019 impact on public opinion appears to be fading \u2014 particularly among white Americans”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“unfavorable views of the police are trending back down toward their pre-protest levels among white Americans and have dipped among Black Americans. White respondents are also becoming somewhat less likely to say that African Americans face \u201ca lot\u201d or \u201ca great deal\u201d of discrimination, though those numbers remain higher than they were before before George Floyd was killed in May. Black Americans\u2019 views on the discrimination they face have remained essentially unchanged.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This decline in public opinion is consistent with a long line of political science research<\/a> that tells us that the effects of events on public opinion tend to last only for as long as they are at the forefront of the country\u2019s \u2014 or, in this case, one group\u2019s \u2014 collective consciousness. That also means that without prolonged activism and sustained media attention, the impact of this year\u2019s protests on white public opinion could evaporate entirely.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Support For Black Lives Matter Surged During Protests, But Is Waning Among White Americans<\/a><\/blockquote>