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October 29, 2021 - 3:20pm
For the first time since 2018, more Americans now oppose the Black Lives Matter movement than support it.
Researchers Civiqs have been tracking public opinion on the activist group every week since 2017, interviewing a total of 278,076 adults across the country. For most of that period BLM has enjoyed majority support. It reached peak popularity (53% support, 28% against) immediately after the killing of George Floyd in June 2020, but has been drifting downwards ever since. Crossover was reached this week, with 44% of the American public opposed to BLM, and 43% in favour.
The divisions in the data, perhaps predictably, are strongest among race and partisan lines. 85% of Democrats support the movement; 87% of Republicans oppose it — but independents now tend to be opposed as well, with 49% against and only 34% in favour. White people are the only racial group likely to oppose the movement (53% to 34%) whereas 82% of the Black and African American group remains in favour.
Perhaps the most revealing detail in the study was the division along class lines. Support for BLM is highest among the highly educated elite, with postgraduates tilting strongly in favour, and non-college graduates tilting against.
This reinforces a common critique of antiracist activists that they are often privileged and out of touch; it will no doubt also add to concerns that highly theoretical concepts like ‘critical race theory’ and ‘equity’ are predominant on university campuses.
The researchers did not specify whether the question referred to BLM the broad philosophy, the organisation, or the protests, but it represents a significant shift in a short period of time. Alongside the dramatic drop in public support for President Biden since his election, observers will be keen to see if it represents a broader shift in political attitudes ahead of the midterms next year.
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Subscribe“White people are the only racial group likely to oppose the movement (53% to 34%) whereas 82% of the Black and African American group remains in favour.”
Come on – this is BS. The USA Hispanics are not big BLM fans, nor are the Asians or Chinese, and I would be expecting neither would Middle Easterners.
That picture of Pelosi kneeling in the halls of Congress has permanently scared my thoughts of American Government. The pictures of the British Police on their knees still revolts me – and I gave up all sports since the kneeling began. I know a great deal of the world and history, and to kneel to something which is not deserving ultimate respect, like god, or true Monarchs as they confer a award on you – is mere GROVELING in supplication. It is what the conquered are made to do in shame.
Apologies if this makes you vomit, but surely you have seen pictures of the latest sacrament of the Woke Religion–white BLM supporters washing the feet of black BLM members. I mean Black BLM members….[not really]!
How whites must atone for the “original sin” of slavery….
Seeing that turned my stomach.
What often goes unmentioned is the growing number of black people, like my wife, who oppose the BLM organisation, especially outside the US. Even my three primary school-aged mixed-race kids can see through it.
I think it’s because one of BLM’s Marxist leaders bought herself three multi-million dollar mansions. All those corporations with their donations and silly Facebook people with their black box avatars. How come I was able to see it for a scam right from the start but others weren’t? It’s maddening.
Which leader was this?
Patrisse Khan-Cullors
https://nypost.com/2021/04/10/inside-blm-co-founder-patrisse-khan-cullors-real-estate-buying-binge/
Thank-you for this, I looked up the link. I then went further and looked up a BBC report, which had some worrying information – Facebook banned anyone who shared this story.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57277777
It was very widely reported, so Fascistbook woke up late.
Four homes and looking at a fifth.
Support for BLM is highest among the highly educated elite….
My Gran, with perhaps a sixth grade education, had an expression: the smart ones are the dumb ones. Brava, Gran!
This piece is particularly fitting for UnHerd, since so many in America as per the “rainbow” chart followed the herd mentality. I MUST be for BLM, because I’m not racist. I even have a black friend. (Apologies to the woke [not really]–I even have a Black friend!).
ALL lives matter, you say? Racist! You must be cancelled, and we’ll dox you–no joke. So many Americans, with perhaps kindness in their hearts, but little in their brains, threw their lot in with BLM. I know some of them. They had the signs. When I directed them to the BLM website to show that this was, proudly, a Marxist organisation whose stated goal was to destroy the family and America as currently structured (not smash the patriarchy, racist, fascist state, but a mostly good place), they were first shocked, then doubled down. Like anti-vaxxers! They refused to believe what was clearly stated.
One recent bit of news that really made me smile, perhaps not noticed by UnHerd readers: the American traitors attempting to sell submarine secrets to a foreign power had a BLM sign prominently displayed at their home.
She was a Ph.d. (probably gender studies or something woke), he was some kind of engineer working with nuclear submarines.
BLM supporters!
Gran was right!
Clem Atlee had it right, “There are a lot of clever people about who have no judgement” perhaps your Gran was from that generation who suffered the deprivations arising from the last war and therefore had the real hard experience of life’
Disliking a movement but are the silent majority willing to stand up to it and the progressives? Will people actively resist their agenda or merely gripe in the privacy of their homes?
The midterms will be highly significant for the US, not least to see the extent to which the media, especially social media, censor the Republicans.
You pose an excellent question. Virginia on Tuesday will perhaps provide an answer. If the Ds win, it is, of course, a horrible result but there could be a silver lining, if this leads to complacency in 2022. If they lose, it would be an excellent result–a REAL businessman, not a professional politician (the D candidate was the former governor, and is as woke as they come), espousing common sense values, but it could perhaps serve as a wake up call to the Ds to get their ducks in a row. It seems as though the issue will turn on the public school system, or should I say re-education camps modelled on Vietnam circa 1975.
For the record, I’m of a Libertarian bent, and hate both parties almost equally, but the Rs are clearly less woke so I am pulling for them.
So the Republicans won, and committed to banning Critical Race Theory from schools. As a school governor, I’d like to see a ban here in the UK. Instead we have to put up with this nonsense, which borders on child abuse. https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-school-that-tried-to-end-racism
I would almost wonder how they even phrased this. The basic concept that black lives matter is of course going to be popular among blacks, and quite frankly among other races too. But the ideals of this particular movement…it is an openly and unrepentantly left-wing organization, and in general blacks are more conservative than whites. It’s probably worth noting that a lot of the places that saw huge BLM riots also tended to be states with lower percentages of blacks. I live in one of the states where they make up a percentage well above the national average. Guess what we didn’t see last year?
Social mobility is a bigger factor than race, but instead of addressing this, BLM encourages poorer black folks to trash their own neighbourhoods.
I bet no one would oppose the idea that black lives matter. It’s the political aims of the BLM group that are the issue. They are explicitly racist towards white people, explicitly anti West, anti family anti capitalism and pro Marxism. Is it any surprise this muddies the water a bit??
Almost without exception, BLM supporters are from the left-wing. This includes the trendy, left-wing metropolitan middle-classes who never miss a chance at virtue-signalling, while not actually doing anything material to address issues of inequality, which often affect poorer whites as much as they do blacks.
Good.
Hurrah. Am I really the only person with postgraduate degrees who can see through this bunch of terrorists?
I bet your degrees are in something useful and practical.
Was there a BLM movement before George Floyd?
Yes, there was, but after his death the movement became much more radicalised.
*Yes, there was, but after his death the movement went completely insane.
They had burned things and rioted before summer 2020, so it was not that much of a surprise. What, you thought the local black community burnt down their own businesses after the Michael Brown verdict?
Not only their own, but big corporate business, that are really needed in the ‘hood, like drugstore chains, Walgreens, CVS, RiteAid. These sort of big box stores are vital in America. Massive numbers of these stores are being closed now since shoplifting has been effectively legalised in many cities and states.
I remember The BBC interviewing a local resident in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray, a black criminal, by all black police officers. For those not aware, Baltimore is a fundamentally and irredeemably corrupt American city that has had one party rule for decades, black rule for many of those decades.
Follow this logic, please. The interviewee, explaining the situation said in the local black dialect:
Brothas (male black local residents) be so unress (unrest)
We gonna burn down CVS (essential drug store in the neighbourhood)….
This was memorable to me and I’ve always thought it should be part of the lyrics of a rap song, with Baltimore burning in the background….
With respect, I disagree. I fully support the beatification of GF, and think that putting up statues of him is a capital idea.
The statues, should, of course, have GF pointing a pistol at the belly of a pregnant woman–also black–to reflect the full breadth and depth of his life.
I stand corrected.
Agreed!
…made much the same suggestion in respect of Edwards Colston’s Statue in Bristol…should have been contextualised by the addition of a group of chained slaves…being sold to him by a well-dressed Black African Slave Trader, and held at gunpoint by his Black African soldiers…in exchange for a mixture of specie, trade goods and firearms…
It had been going since around 2013, but they’d been biding their time for what in the movies would be called an “inciting incident” of sufficient weight to give momentum to their politicised campaign.