USA Today published the results of a new poll on the public’s support for Black Lives Matter and for police. The poll found that support for BLM is still down from the highs it briefly saw last summer. Meanwhile trust in local police is up substantially. But there’s a hitch, and you can probably guess what it is. Black and white Americans view these issues very differently. In fact, the two are almost a mirror image at this point.
Last June, amid accusations of systemic racism in law enforcement, 60% of Americans expressed trust in the Black Lives Matter movement to promote justice and equal treatment of people, compared with 56% who trusted local police to do that.
Now, however, attitudes have shifted significantly. Trust in Black Lives Matter has fallen to 50%; trust in local police and law enforcement has risen to 69%.
Black Americans and white Americans now express very different views: 75% of Black people but just 42% of white people express trust in Black Lives Matter, while 77% of white people but just 42% of Black people trust local police.
But perhaps the most interesting finding in this survey is that support for BLM has dropped more among Black Americans than white Americans. Similarly, trust in police has gone up slightly more among Black Americans than among whites.
Among Black respondents, trust in Black Lives Matter has fallen by 12 points and trust in local police has risen by 14 points. Among white respondents, trust in Black Lives Matter has fallen by 8 points and trust in local police has risen by 12 points.
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