Americans Divided on Whether Increased Focus on Race Will Lead to Major Policy Change

A series of high-profile incidents of police violence against Black Americans in recent months, including the killing of George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake, have sparked nationwide protests, renewed calls for the removal of Confederate symbols and produced public condemnations of systemic racism from lawmakers, corporations, sports leagues and others. Yet many Americans are skeptical that this moment of racial reckoning will lead to major changes in the United States, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

The public is about evenly split on whether the increased focus on issues of race and racial inequality in the country in the past three months will lead to major policy changes to address racial inequality (48% say it will and 51% say it will not). A sizable share (46%) say this will not lead to changes that will improve the lives of Black people. And while a majority say the heightened attention to racial issues represents a change in the way most Americans think about these issues, just 34% say this represents a major change.

The events of the past several months have galvanized Black Americans more so than other racial and ethnic groups. A majority of Black adults (64%) say they have been paying a lot of attention to issues of race and racial inequality in the past three months, and 59% say they have been paying more attention to these issues than they did before. In contrast, about four-in-ten White, Hispanic and Asian adults say they have been paying a lot of attention to issues of race and racial inequality. Black Americans are also more likely than White, Hispanic and Asian Americans to say they’ve taken steps to educate themselves about the history of racial inequality in the country and that they’ve made efforts to support minority-owned businesses in recent months.

Views of the country’s progress on racial equality have become more negative in the past year, particularly among Black and Hispanic adults and Democrats across racial and ethnic groups. Overall, 49% of U.S. adults now say the country hasn’t gone far enough when it comes to Black people having equal rights with White people, up from 45% in early 2019. Among Black Americans, an even larger share say this is the case today than did so in 2019 (86% vs. 78%). And while a majority of Hispanics (57%) now say the country hasn’t gone far enough in this regard, 48% said the same last year. Meanwhile, the views of White Americans are virtually unchanged.

Among Democrats and Democratic leaners, 78% say the country hasn’t gone far enough when it comes to Black people having equal rights with White people, up from 66% in 2019. In contrast, just 17% of Republicans and those who lean to the GOP say this, similar to the share that did so last year (18%). The shares saying the country hasn’t gone far enough are up by 8 percentage points among Black Democrats, 12 points among White Democrats and 13 points among Hispanic Democrats.

In general, the partisan gaps on issues related to race remain wide and persistent, even after taking into account the racial composition of the parties. Whether looking at the treatment of Black adults relative to White adults, the amount of attention paid to racial issues in this country or the importance of this moment, White Democrats and Republicans have vastly different views.

There’s no clear consensus about which measures would be most effective in reducing racial inequality. Among those who say the country hasn’t made enough progress on racial equality, about half (48%) say more people participating in diversity and inclusion training would do a lot to reduce inequality between Black people and White people. Roughly four-in-ten say the same about redrawing school boundaries to create more diverse schools and limiting the scope of policing to focus on serious and violent crimes. Smaller shares say companies and organizations taking race and ethnicity into account in decisions about hiring and promotions, colleges and universities taking these factors into account in decisions about admissions and the U.S. government paying cash reparations to Black people who are the descendants of slaves would do a lot to reduce racial inequality.

With the exception of limiting the scope of policing, Black adults who say the country hasn’t made enough progress on racial equality are more likely than their White counterparts to say each measure would do a lot to reduce racial inequality. Black adults are also more likely than Hispanic and Asian adults to say companies and organizations taking race and ethnicity into account in decisions about hiring and promotions, colleges and universities taking these factors into account in decisions about admissions and cash reparations would do a lot to reduce racial inequality. These racial and ethnic differences persist among Democrats on some items.

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Black Americans are more likely now than in 2019 to say being Black puts people at a disadvantage in our society and that being White helps. 

About eight-in-ten Black adults (81%) say being Black hurts a person’s ability to get ahead in the U.S. at least a little, up from 68% in 2019. At the same time, 81% of Black adults say being White helps a person’s ability to get ahead, compared with 69% who said the same last year. A growing share of Hispanics also say being Black puts people at a disadvantage, but views on whether being White helps have not changed significantly among this group. Views on how being Black or White impacts a person’s ability to get ahead have remained stable among White and Asian adults. Overall, 58% of Americans say being Black hurts a person’s ability to get ahead and 55% say the same about being Hispanic. In contrast, most Americans (60%) say being White helps.

Americans are now more likely to say Black people are treated less fairly than White people when seeking medical treatment. Amid continued reports of the disproportionate health impact of the coronavirus outbreak on Black people and other racial and ethnic minorities, 42% of Americans now say Black people are treated less fairly than White people when seeking medical treatment, up from 33% in 2019. The shares saying this have grown among White, Black and Hispanic Americans. For example, 76% of Black adults say this today, compared with 59% last year. There has also been an uptick in the share of Americans who say Black people are treated less fairly than White people when applying for a loan or mortgage (49% today vs. 45% in 2019), while perceptions of how Black people are treated in dealing with police, in hiring, pay and promotions, in stores or restaurants and when voting in elections are more stable among all adults. Black Americans are more likely than they were in 2019 to say Black people are treated less fairly than White people in each of these areas.

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Social media users whose friends or family members have expressed opposition to racism on social media in the past three months see a mix of motivations for these posts. Most social media users (62%) say at least some of their friends and family members have expressed opposition to racism or racial inequality on social media in the past three months; 19% say a few have and 19% say none of their friends or family members have done this. Among those who say at least a few of their friends or family members have expressed opposition to racism on social media in recent months, three-quarters say at least some were motivated by a genuine concern about the treatment of Black people, with 36% saying all or most were motivated by this. A smaller share – but still a majority (58%) – say at least some of their friends and family members were motivated by social pressure to do so. Social media users younger than age 30 are more likely than older social media users to say at least some of their friends or family members who have expressed their opposition to racism on social media in the past three months were motivated by social pressure.

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No clear consensus on measures that would be very effective in reducing racial inequality

The survey asked those who say the country hasn’t gone far enough when it comes to Black people having equal rights with White people how much a series of measures would do to reduce this inequality. About half (48%) say more people participating in training on diversity and inclusion would do a lot. About four-in-ten say the same about redrawing school boundaries to create more racially and ethnically diverse schools (43%) and limiting the scope of policing to focus on serious and violent crimes (40%). Smaller shares say companies and organizations taking race and ethnicity into account in decisions about hiring and promotions (34%), colleges and universities taking these factors into account in admissions decisions (27%) and the U.S. government paying cash reparations to Black people in the country who are the descendants of slaves (20%) would do a lot to reduce inequality between Black people and White people.

Majorities of about seven-in-ten or more of those who say the country hasn’t made enough progress toward racial equality say most of the measures included in the survey would do at least some to reduce inequality between Black people and White people. The one exception is reparations: 48% say the U.S. government paying cash reparations to Black people who are the descendants of slaves would do at least some to reduce inequality and 51% say this wouldn’t do much, if anything at all.

Black adults who say the country has work do to on racial equality are more likely than their White counterparts to say more people participating in diversity and inclusion training and redrawing school boundaries to create more racially and ethnically diverse schools would do a lot to reduce inequality between Black people and White people.⁵ And Black adults are more likely than both White and Hispanic adults to say companies and organizations taking race and ethnicity into account in decisions about hiring and promotions, colleges and universities taking these factors into account in admissions decisions and the government paying cash reparations to the descendants of slaves would do a lot.

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When it comes to the U.S. government paying cash reparations to Black people in the country who are the descendants of slaves, just 18% of White Republicans who say the county hasn’t made enough progress on racial equality say reparations would do at least some to reduce racial inequality, while 23% say they wouldn’t do much and 58% say reparations would do nothing at all to reduce racial inequality. Among White Democrats who say the country hasn’t made enough progress, 43% say reparations would do at least some to reduce racial inequality; 32% say they wouldn’t do much and 25% say reparations would do nothing at all.

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Most Black Americans say there is too little attention paid to race and racial issues

About four-in-ten U.S. adults (41%) say there’s too much attention paid to race and racial issues in the country these days; 36% say there’s too little attention and 21% say it’s about right. This is unchanged from 2019, but there has been movement among some groups.

Black Americans are more likely than in 2019 to say there’s too little attention paid to race and racial issues: 73% now say this, up from 67% early last year. Just 12% of Black Americans say there’s too much attention paid to these issues and 14% say it’s about right. Among Hispanics, more say there’s too little attention paid to race and racial issues (46%) than say there’s too much attention (30%) or the right amount (21%), while Asian adults are more divided. The views of Hispanic and Asian adults have not changed significantly since 2019.

As was the case in 2019, about half of White adults (51%) say there’s too much attention paid to race and racial issues these days, while 26% say there’s too little attention and 22% say it’s about right. White Republicans are far more likely than White Democrats to say there’s too much attention paid to race and racial issues in the country: 76% of White Republicans say this, compared with just 14% of White Democrats. About half of White Democrats (52%) – vs. just 7% of White Republicans – say there’s too little attention paid to these issues. The share of White Democrats who now say there’s too much attention to these issues is 7 percentage points lower than the share that did so in 2019. There is no notable change among White Republicans.