WSJ/NBC News Poll: 56 Percent of American Voters Say America Is Racist
WAKING UP
FREDERIC J. BROWN
Some 56 percent of American voters say they believe U.S. society is racist, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll has found. The survey shows substantial shifts in views on race nearly two months after George Floyd, a Black man, was killed in police custody in Minneapolis. Nearly three-quarters of Americans in the poll, 71 percent, believe that race relations are bad. “Americans are concerned about issues of inequality, and George Floyd’s death helped contribute to that,” said Brenda Lee, a pollster who worked on the survey with Democrat Jeff Horwitt and Republican Bill McInturff. “We’ve moved the needle a great deal in terms of just clearly identifying that we, as Americans, have an issue with racism in this society.” Opinions about the extent of racial discrimination break clearly along party lines, however; 90 percent of Democrats said Black people are discriminated against, whereas just 26 percent of Republicans agreed. A similarly large share of Democrats, 82 percent, believe American society is racist, a view held by only 30 percent of Republicans. Some 57 percent of those surveyed said they support the nationwide protests sparked by Floyd’s killing, and 58 percent said they are more concerned with racial inequality as a result of the demonstrations.