Ten years after the Black Lives Matter hashtag first appeared on Twitter, about half of U.S. adults (51%) say that they support the BLM movement. Three years ago, following the murder of George Floyd, 2/3rds expressed support for the movement.
In assessing the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement, 32% say it’s been highly effective at bringing attention to racism towards African Americans. Smaller shares say the same about increasing police accountability (41%), improving the lives of Black people (81%) and improving race relations (7%). Overall, 31% of Americans say they understand the goals of the Black Lives matter movement extremely or very well.
Views of the Black Lives Matter movement vary by:
-Race and Ethnicity: 81% of black adults say they support the movement, compared with 63% of Asian adults, 61% of Hispanics and 42% of white adults. White adults are more likely than those in other racial and ethnic groups to describe the movement as DIVISIVE and DANGEROUS, and they are the least likely to describe it as EMPOWERING.
-Age: 64% of adults 18 to 29 support the movement, compared with 52% of those 30 to 49% of those 50 to 64 and 41% of those 65 and older. Some 41% of young adults (18 to 29) say EMPOWERING describes the movement extremely or very well and 27% say the same about INCLUSIVE, larger than the share of adults ages 30 and older.
-Partisanship: 84% of Democrats and Democratic leaders support the movement, while 82% of Republicans oppose it. Democrats are more likely than republicans to say the word EMPOWERING (42% to 11%) and INCLUSIVE (27% to 11%) describe the movement as extreme or as very well. Republicans deem to view it as DANGEROUS and DIVISIVE (59% to 9%) and (54% to 19%) describe it as well.
Like views of the Black Lives Matter movement, attitudes about videos of police violence against African Americans are being widely shared and the treatment of them in the United States often vary by race, ethnicity and partisanship.
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