Thursday, June 11, 2020

New Yahoo News/YouGov poll: Support for Black Lives Matter doubles as most Americans reject Trump's protest response

Andrew Romano
West Coast Correspondent,
Yahoo News•June 11, 2020


In what may represent one of the more rapid shifts in racial attitudes in recent U.S. history, a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that a broad majority of Americans now believe that both the police and society as a whole are beset by systemic racism — a messaging victory for the Black Lives Matter movement and the related protests that have roiled the nation since George Floyd died last month under the knee of a Minneapolis cop.

Likewise, most Americans reject President Trump’s claim that “law and order” can solve the problem, even as they worry that activists’ preferred approach of “defunding” the police goes too far.

The survey, conducted June 9 and 10, found that the mass protests have triggered a sea change in perceptions of race in America. In 2016, just a quarter of Americans (27 percent) told YouGov that they approved of Black Lives Matter; today, 57 percent say they have a favorable view of the movement.

 Poll finds support for Black Lives Matter has doubled among Americans 


A similar majority (56 percent) say they have become more concerned about racial injustice in the U.S. since the protests began just two weeks ago.

As a result, 60 percent of Americans now say that “racism is built into American society” and that “the assumption of white superiority pervades schools, business, housing and government.” An identical number say the police have a problem with systemic racism; even more (63 percent) say America has a problem with it. A majority (53 percent) say “many” Americans are racist, while an additional 8 percent describe “most” Americans that way. Sixty-nine percent say race was a factor in Floyd’s killing; 54 percent say it was a “major” factor. And 60 percent say the deaths of African-Americans during encounters with the police are signs of a broader problem rather than isolated incidents, with 63 percent saying police officers don’t treat black and white people equally.

Back in 2013, when Black Lives Matter began, most Americans tended to disagree with such views.

The public has even changed its mind, seemingly overnight, about one of the most contentious cultural issues of the last few years: whether NFL players such as former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick should protest racism and police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem. Asked in 2016, just 28 percent of Americans considered Kaepernick’s conduct “appropriate”; asked again in 2018, just 35 percent said the same. Now, for the first time, a majority of Americans (52 percent) agree that it’s “OK for NFL players to kneel during the national anthem to protest police killings of African-Americans” — while only 36 percent say it’s not.

As racial attitudes evolve, Trump appears to be increasingly out of step. A staggering three-quarters of Americans — including 66 percent of Republicans — say the country is out of control. Yet only 36 percent of Americans agree with Trump that “law and order” would help matters; the remainder (64 percent) prefer an approach that involves “bringing people together.” (As of Thursday morning, Trump has “LAW & ORDER!” pinned to the top of his Twitter profile.)
President Trump during a meeting with conservative black supporters at the White House on Wednesday. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

The problem for the president is that he receives dismal marks on uniting the country. Asked whether they agree or disagree with the recent criticism from Gen. Jim Mattis, Trump’s former defense secretary, that the president “does not try to unify the American people” but instead “tries to divide us,” 60 percent concur with Mattis. Only 15 percent say Trump’s response to the protests has been helpful. Just 31 percent say it was appropriate for the Trump administration to forcibly remove protesters adjacent to the White House. A full 55 percent say the protesters were cleared so Trump could pose with a Bible in front of nearby St. John’s Church — not so security forces could widen the safety perimeter to protect federal buildings, as the administration claimed. The same number disapprove of Trump’s recent tweet baselessly accusing a 75-year-old Buffalo, N.Y., protester who was shoved to the ground and bloodied by police of being an “ANTIFA provocateur.” And in the previous Yahoo News/YouGov poll, conducted May 29 and 30, a minority of white people (43 percent to 46 percent) said yes when asked if Trump is a racist. Today, however, a plurality of white people (46 percent to 39 percent) say he is — a net shift of 10 percentage points in as many days.

Twice as many Americans — 54 percent to 26 percent — think former President Barack Obama would have handled the Floyd protests better than Trump. On the same question, Trump trails presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden by 10 points (42 percent to 32 percent); on the question of who would do a better job handling race relations overall, Trump trails Biden by 17 (44 percent to 27 percent). A full 49 percent of Americans say they now plan to vote for Biden in November. Just 40 percent say they plan to vote for Trump.

Which isn’t to say Americans agree with the protesters about everything. In late May, a majority (51 percent) described the Floyd protests as “mostly violent riots”; only 10 percent thought they were “mostly peaceful.” Now those numbers have largely flipped, with 43 percent saying the protests have been mostly peaceful and 21 percent saying they’ve been mostly violent. Yet by a 13-point margin — 43 percent to 30 percent — the public still thinks the protesters have been more violent than the police during the last two weeks, with a majority saying that “most” (12 percent) or “many” protesters (42 percent) have broken the law, while a minority says that most (11 percent) or many (34 percent) police officers have responded to peaceful protests with violence.


Americans disapprove of the police’s response to the protests, with a majority rating it either fair (31 percent) or poor (25 percent). But they also remain skeptical of protesters’ demands. Only 25 percent favor “cutting funding for police departments” — a 9-point increase from last month’s poll, but still far less than the 53 percent who oppose cuts. A full 59 percent of Americans agree that “police departments have a problem with race, but the problem can be fixed by reforming the existing system,” with most of the specific reforms under consideration in Congress receiving widespread support. Just 24 percent say that “police reform hasn’t worked” and that “we need to defund police and reinvent our approach to public safety.” Meanwhile, 64 percent of Americans insist that “we need more cops on the street,” not fewer; black Americans are evenly divided (50 percent to 50 percent) on the issue. When the question about defunding is rephrased as “spending less money on police” in order to invest “more money [in] a community’s education, housing and health care programs,” a plurality (40 percent) are still opposed.

Americans seem more inclined to favor (by a 49 percent to 30 percent margin) “gradually redirecting police funding toward increasing the number of social workers, drug counselors and mental health experts responsible for responding to non-violent emergencies” — a key tenet of most defunding proposals. Yet while a majority of Americans describe the Minneapolis City Council’s recent pledge to dismantle the city’s police department and replace it with a new system of public safety as either a “very good” (19 percent) or a “somewhat good idea” (32 percent), a substantial plurality (45 percent) say they are opposed to their own city council doing the same thing.

There are still limits, in other words, to how much Americans say they are willing to sacrifice to address systemic racism — and how much responsibility they are willing to take. For instance, a plurality (46 percent to 33 percent) say that race relations in the U.S are “generally bad” rather than “generally good.” Yet the numbers are radically reversed — 63 percent good vs. 17 percent bad — when Americans are asked to assess race relations in their own community. By the same token, just 4 percent of Americans say yes when asked if they themselves are “racist.” Eighty-four percent say no. Only 20 percent admit to having any “racial biases” at all.

Cover photo thumbnail: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images


More Americans Want Democrats to Control Congress, WSJ/NBC Poll Finds

James Baldwin's "Black Lives Matter" Speech (1965)

James Baldwin makes a heartfelt plea for racial justice and equality at Cambridge University.
Historic debate between James Baldwin v. William F. Buckley Jr. at Cambridge University on the question: "Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?"


James Baldwin Speaks! The Fire This Time: A Message to Black Youth. James Baldwin addresses students at inner-city Oakland's Castlemont High School. The address covers some of the themes of Baldwin's classic The Fire Next Time published earlier that year. This is one of Baldwin's most profound and passionate talks and speaks as strongly to the generation of #blacklivesmatter as it did to that Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Baldwin also takes questions from the students (which are read for the broadcast by the radio announcer). Recorded Junes 23, 1963.


James Baldwin Interview: Black Man in America. (1961?) with Studs Terkel.
Some people have noticed the audio is sped up. I'm not positive how that happened but it seems like if you click gear/settings button in the bottom right corner of the video, you can slow the speed to .75, which sounds closer to the real audio. Baldwin discusses his career up until his collection of essays, "Nobody Knows my Name," knowing yourself, race in America, and writing. Check out this playlist of other Baldwin videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... more baldwin at https://archive.org/details/cabemrc_0...



This is a speech given by Mr. James Baldwin at the University of Chicago on May 21, 1963. The Speech is entitled The Moral Responsibility of the Artist.

White Rage: Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide


Jan 20, 2017


Race and Gender Colloquium Series: "White Rage: Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide," Carol Anderson

Angela Davis: How Does Change Happen? 

Feb 8, 2008






From radical rebel to university professor, Angela Davis has dedicated her life to social activism. In this talk, Angela Davis reflects on her successes and shares her insights on the strategies for change that have made -- and will make -- history. Sponsored by the Women's Resources and Research Center at UC Davis [1/2007] [Show ID: 12069]





Angela Davis - "Freedom is a Constant Struggle" hosted by The University of New England Jan 25, 2019





A Conversation on Race and Privilege with Angela Davis and Jane Elliott is the latest installment of the student-led Social Justice Solutions series. Each year, we invite activists, thought leaders, and the community to explore action-oriented strategies to affect social change. This year we are honored to host two luminaries who have long been on the front lines of pushing the national conversation on race and racial justice forward.


The Prison: A Sign of Democracy?

35,244 views
Mar 7, 2008



(Visit: http://www.uctv.tv) UC Santa Cruz professor Angela Davis explores the range of social problems associated with incarceration and the generalized criminalization of those communities that are most affected by poverty and racial discrimination. She urges her audience to think seriously about the future possibility of a world without prisons and to help forge a 21st century abolitionist movement. Series: "The Center for Cultural Studies at UC Santa Cruz presents" [2/2008] [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 13826]





Black Leaders Discussion feat. Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Ture & Fannie Lou Hamer ETC.(1973)



Jul 21, 2019


A Black Journal special program featuring key leaders such as Angela Davis, Kwame Ture, Fannie Lou Hamer and etc. discussing an array of topics that affect the Black community.

CANADA GETS A PASSING MENTION IN A NIGHT AT THE OPERA MARX BROTHERS

GOP THEME SONG I'M AGAINST IT, GRUCHO MARX HORSE FEATHERS

ANIMAL CRACKERS; BIGAMY GRUCHO MARX

THE MARXIST INTERPRETATION OF WAR BY AN ANARCHIST


Politicians Tell Trump To Go Back To The Bunker After His Threat To ‘Take Back’ Seattle

Ed Mazza HuffPost June 11, 2020

President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to “take back” Seattle from protesters, tweeting that “ugly anarchists must be stooped.” In response, state and local politicians told him to go back to his bunker beneath the White House ― and keep out of local business.

Seattle had been marked by violent clashes with police amid the demonstrations that broke out after a cop killed George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis last month. But earlier this week, Seattle police left the area and demonstrators took over, cordoning off several blocks which they’ve declared the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” or “CHAZ,” now the site of peaceful ongoing protests.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan (D) said the police pullback was done “to proactively de-escalate interactions between protestors and law enforcement.” But Trump was unhappy with the move even though it ― at least temporarily ― worked. He tweeted:

Radical Left Governor @JayInslee and the Mayor of Seattle are being taunted and played at a level that our great Country has never seen before. Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will. This is not a game. 

These ugly Anarchists must be stooped (SP) IMMEDIATELY. MOVE FAST!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2020


ANARCHIST STOOPED WALK

As far as I know, this is the first time that the "Walk this Way" gag appeared in any film or video. It's from the 1936 movie, "After the Thin Man", which starred William Powell and Myrna Loy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoMmn31q-d0

MARXIST VERSION
WALK LIKE GROUCHO
This special new series about the Marx Brothers in New York continues this week, following the brothers into a career in Broadway and into the movies, but first I would like to take a little time to discuss Groucho's peculiar way of walking. Sometimes described as a "lope" or "stoop," Groucho's silly and often lecherous walk became just as an important part of his persona as his glasses, eyebrows, cigar and greasepaint moustache. He didn't walk this walk all the time, but as you recall from the films, Groucho would often bend his knees and lean forward as he proceeded from point A to point B. To imitate Groucho properly at a costume party, it's important to get this part down.
https://walkingoffthebigapple.blogspot.com/2009/06/marx-brothers-in-new-york-interlude-on.html


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn1JUCFobBM
Domestic Terrorists have taken over Seattle, run by Radical Left Democrats, of course. LAW & ORDER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2020

Durkan fired back by referring to the White House bunker Trump was rushed to as demonstrations broke out in D.C.:

Make us all safe. Go back to your bunker. #BlackLivesMatter https://t.co/H3TXduhlY4
— Mayor Jenny Durkan (@MayorJenny) June 11, 2020

Trump claimed he was only inspecting the bunker when Secret Service agents rushed him there as protesters gathered outside the White House at the end of May. However, earlier this week, Attorney General Bill Barr confirmed that the president was taken to the bunker for his own safety.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who represents Seattle in Congress, also made a reference to the bunker incident:

Don’t you have a bunker to be in? https://t.co/pywCiDfCml
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) June 11, 2020

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D), who has clashed with Trump repeatedly over the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, also told the president to butt out:

A man who is totally incapable of governing should stay out of Washington state’s business. “Stoop” tweeting. https://t.co/O6i04qmZ9v
— Jay Inslee (@JayInslee) June 11, 2020

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.