Poll: Nearly two-thirds of Americans support protests against racial injustice
Savannah BehrmannWASHINGTON – Nearly two-thirds of Americans support the recent protests against racial injustice, a new Gallup poll released Tuesday revealed.
The nationwide protests were sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a Black man whose neck was pinned under the knee of a white police officer for nearly nine minutes in May.
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The poll found that 65% of U.S. adults support the protests. Additionally, 53% said the protests "will help" public support for equality and racial justice versus 34% who said they would "hurt" and 13% who said they will "make no difference."
The poll also reports that approximately one in 10 respondents said they had participated in a demonstration in the last month. Among younger respondents, that number jumps to one in four.
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In terms of support for the protests, 92% of Black Americans said they support the protests, while 89% of Asian Americans, 70% of Hispanics and 59% of white respondents said they do.
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Additionally, 54% of those surveyed said the protests have changed their “views on racial justice and equality” in some way, while 47% stated the contrary.
The support for the protests comes as the White House and Attorney General William Barr try to paint the protesters as "violent rioters."
In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Barr offered an unmitigated defense of the deployment of federal officers to Portland, Oregon, where he said "a mob" hijacked legitimate demonstrations against police brutality.
Barr called protests in Portland "an assault on the government of the United States," countering Democratic lawmakers who have characterized federal officers' actions against protesters as unconstitutional, politically charged fearmongering.
While some of the demonstrations grew unruly, overall, the protests have been largely peaceful, according to research conducted by the marketing firm Ipsos and teams from the Universities of Chicago and Oxford.
The poll also revealed partisanship in terms of support and participation for the protests, with 95% of Democrats supporting the demonstrations, compared with 69% of independents and 22% of Republicans.
Respondents who affiliated as being Republican also were only 1% likely to participate, and only 14% stated they felt a connection to the protests' cause, according to the poll.
The results were based from a web study of 36,463 U.S. adults, conducted between June 23 and July 6. It has a margin of error of 1.4 percentage points. "The margins of error for white, Hispanic, Black and Asian American survey respondents were 1.6, 6.6, 6.4 and 8.8 percentage points, respectively."
Contributing: Kristine Phillips, Kevin Johnson USA TODAY