Despite the protests against systemic racism following George Floyd’s death in police custody, only 26 percent of respondents in an ABC News/Ipsos poll said they were in favor of reparations.
The poll was conducted June 17-18, 2020 in English and Spanish in a random national sample of 727 adults.
It found that 74 percent of respondents believe the federal government should not pay reparations for slavery to African Americans. It also found that 56 percent of respondents are against changing the names of U.S. military bases named for Confederate leaders.
“Although we have seen large changes in opinion on a wide variety of issues revolving around race in America, there has been only a slight change in attitudes about reparations over the last 20 years,” Kendall Karson reported for ABC.
Twenty-three years ago, an ABC News/Washington Post poll from June 1997 found that 77 percent of respondents were against reparations for slavery.
In 1997, 65 percent of Black respondents and 10 percent of white supported reparations — “a split that is about the same as this week’s poll,” Karson reported.
The latest ABC/Ipsos poll shows that among Democrat respondents, 54 percent support the federal government paying reparations for slavery while 45 percent oppose. Meanwhile, 94 percent of Republicans and 82 percent of independents are against reparations.
In 2016, African Americans cast 24 percent of Democratic primary votes — the largest share ever. If the ABC poll response numbers mirror the Democrat party electorate of 2016, that could mean most white Democrat respondents oppose reparations.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden was criticized for his failure to discuss reparations when he recently unveiled his agenda for Black America.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 72: Jamarlin Martin Part 2. J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI, may not be around but his energy is present in new Black politics.FBI agents and informants were used to weaken Marcus Garvey, the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers — in many cases for money and career advancement. How could this energy metastasize into the “New Blacks” politics in 2020? Jamarlin goes solo to discuss who is doing the trading and what is being traded to weaken the aggregate Black political position.
Biden’s proposal, named “Lift Every Voice: The Biden Plan for Black America,” focused on the African-American community and racial disparities in the impact of covid-19. But it did not address the roots of inequality in the U.S. — a must for some activists.
More than 50 progressive groups led by Black organizations such as Black Voters Matter signed a letter to Biden, warning he could lose the election without the support of Black voters.
The former vice president responded by saying he would support a study on the feasibility of paying reparations for slavery, but only if it includes reparations for Native Americans.
