In the wake of 46-year-old George Floyd’s May 25 murder by 44-year Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin, the public’s sympathy for racism and police brutality has begun to wane. Triggering nationwide street protests, riots, looting, arson and anarchy, the public, as measured by Democrats, Republicans and independents, have begun to tire of continuing calls by Black Lives Matter and other anti-establishment groups to de-fund the police. While over 50% polled showed sympathy for systemic racism and police brutality, the same Monmouth University poll shows only 40% of Republicans continue to back Black Lives Matter. While Monmouth pollsters found that 40% of Republicans believed that protesters anger was justified in early June, only 15% say it’s justified today. Monmouth found that most black respondents believe Black Lives Matter brought attention to racism.
Monmouth’s poll shows more polarization with Democrats, influenced heavily the black constituency, continue to think “systemic racism” exists in the United States, something that must be addressed in the wake of Floyd’s murder. “But attitudes shift back and forth,” said Sekou Franklin, political scientist at Middle Tennessee State University. “I think the concern among many activists and social scientists is with the moderate observers, who’s now more sympathetic to the protesters. Will that person’s attitudes shift back over time?” asked Franklin. Redefining “racism” by authors like Robin DiAngelo, author of “Black Fragility,” could wind up backfiring on moderate voters. DiAngelo defines all whites as “racist,” because they’re not black, a peculiar, eccentric definition. DiAngelo insists that white “defensiveness” over race proves that systemic racism exists.
When authors like DiAngelos insist that all white are “racist,” it mangles any sensible definition, twisted into something wholeheartedly backed by Ibran X. Kendi’s book, “How to be an Ani-Racist.” Both Di-Angelo and Kendi insist that accepting one’s “racism” is a necessary first step, as Kendi likes to call it, as becoming an “anti-racist.” But unlike DiAngelo, Kendi wants to create a movement of anit-racist activists, capable to dealing with the institutionalized and systemic racism that Kendi theorizes holds down blacks and other colored populations. Monmouth’s poll showed shifting attitudes about the Floyd murder, now raising for Black Lives Matter and other civil rights groups the opportunity to push a pro-black agenda, including completing the movement to obtain economic reparations for African Americans. Political scientists like Franklin worry that voters are getting jaded.
Democrats, especially during a presidential election year, brand Republicans as racist, homophobic, xenophobic, misogynistic, etc., to show the sharp contrasts between the parties. Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, 72, went on step further, branding Republicans as “a basket of deplorables.” Hillary’s strategy backfired in 2016, help push 74-year-old President Donald Trump over the hump. But recent events, following weeks of at times violent street protests, involving unlawfully tearing down U.S. historic statues and monuments has begun, as Franklin feared, to shift white attitudes away from the sympathy held after Floyd’s murder. Monmouth found that 43% of respondents said that protest made things better. Another 45% said protests made things worse, unable in the Monmouth survey to factor in the desecration of historic statues and monuments, including those of President George Washington.
Franklin admits he’s biased in support of Black Lives Matter’s demand to de-fund the police. It’s becoming a partisan issue, and that’s clearly a shame, but there’s not a lot of sympathy for the people who are blowing things up or looting stores,” said Republican pollster Glen Bolger. Bolger thinks that whatever sympathy Republicans had for George Floyd’s murder, extremists have pushed things too far, now turning off Republican or crossover voters. When Black Lives Matter-backed activists seized six square blocks of Seattle June 12, it showed what happens when U.S. streets turn to anarchy. Seattle and Washington State authorities refused to intervene, letting rabble rousers control the streets for over three weeks. Watching anarchy in Seattle streets has shifted public opinion, especially Republicans and crossover Democrats to have less sympathy for Black Lives Matter.
Black Lives Matter’s demand to de-fund the police has come to mean reallocating resources from law enforcement to social service agencies, largely to service African American and other poor communities. “To the credit of activists around the country who have been working on the de-fund movement,” Franklin said. “They’ve effectively been able to dissect municipal budgets and make it explicitly clear how much more goes toward police departments, and how much money can go toward public health and other first responders,” Franklin said. As more time goes by from Floyd’s death, Black Lives Matter gets more worried that their demands will get swept under the rug. Recent decisions to slash the New York City and Los Angeles Police budgets, have more to do with massive budget deficits due to Covid-19, than reallocating funds to Black Lives Matter’s pressing priorities.
