UMass Poll Finds Majority Of Americans Oppose Reparations for Descendants Of Slaves. Slim Pluralities Support Statehood For D.C. And Puerto Rico
Black Lives Matter Plaza, Washington, D.C. Photo: Ted Eytan. Flckr.com. Creative Commmons
Source: UMass News and Media
Nearly two-thirds of Americans and 90% of Republicans oppose the idea of providing reparations to the descendants of slaves, according to the results of a nationwide UMass/WCVB poll.
“Four hundred years since Africans were forcibly brought to the shores of America, 245 years since the 3/5th Compromise and 156 years since freed African Americans were promised 40 acres and a mule, a majority of Americans express an unwillingness to pay the descendants of slaves for the nation’s original sin,” says Tatishe Nteta, Associate Professor of political science at UMass and director of the poll.
Sixty-two percent of the poll’s respondents oppose the idea of reparations, and nearly half (46%) say the federal government “definitely should not” make cash payments to the descendants of slaves. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Democrats and 86% of African Americans support the idea of compensating slaves’ descendants, while only 28% of Whites support reparations.
“For opponents of reparations, it is not about the cost or the difficulty of the policy, but about perceptions of the worthiness of the contemporary recipients of cash payments,” Nteta says.
“Disturbingly – and in spite of indisputable evidence of the continuing effects of slavery and Jim Crow on Blacks – the primary stated reason for this opposition is the perception that descendants of enslaved people are not deserving of reparations,” says Jesse Rhodes, professor of political science at UMass and associate director of the poll.
While 6% of those opposed say such a program would be too expensive, 13% say it would be too difficult to administer and 25% say it is impossible to place a value on slavery’s impact. Meanwhile, 38% say the descendants simply do not deserve reparations for their ancestor’s struggles. Another 18% say reparations should not be paid because they say African Americans are treated equally in society today. Nearly half of the Republicans (46%) who oppose reparations say African Americans do not deserve them, and 25% say they are treated equally and therefore should not receive cash payments.
“In explaining their opposition to reparations, Americans view the descendants of slaves as unworthy of payment or the plight of their forefathers and mothers,” Nteta says. “For supporters of reparations, the next stage in the fight may be the education of the public regarding the continuing legacy and impact of slavery on the African American community.”
Majority-Minority Nation
The poll of 1,000 respondents conducted April 21-23 also asked respondents about their views of African Americans, Latinos, multi-racial Americans and people of Asian descent possibly outnumbering whites in the U.S. in the next 30 years, as the Census Bureau predicts.
“Overall, Americans express ambivalence about the emergence of a majority-minority nation in the coming decades,” Rhodes says, referring to the 47% plurality of respondents who said that the new makeup of the nation will be neither good nor bad for the country. “However, it’s really Whites who have concerns. Only 29% of whites think that increasing diversity is good for the country, compared with strong majorities of Blacks (61%), Latinx (54%) and Asian Americans (69%). White anxiety about their impending minority status almost certainly contributes to their support for tough immigration policies, stringent requirements for voting, and skepticism toward ‘big government’ policies they believe unfairly favor communities of color.”
Black Lives Matter
The poll also asked respondents to select the words that best described the events that followed the murder of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin last summer, as well as whether they support the strategies, tactics, and goals of the Black Lives Matter movement in general.
“With images of the large scale non-violent protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd shown alongside incidents of violent interactions with police and the destruction of private property and business by a minority of protesters, it is no surprise that Americans describe the Black Lives Matter movement as protest (67%), followed by a riot (60%) and looting (56%),” Nteta says. “Historically, social movements led by African Americans have not received support from Americans, and the Black Lives Matter movement is no different. After the death of George Floyd and almost weekly reports of police killings of African Americans, less than a majority of Americans (48%) support the goals of the Black Lives Matter movement.”
“Popular support for the goals of the Black Lives Matter movement is noticeably stronger than support for its strategy and tactics (40%),” says Rhodes. “This likely reflects many Americans’ ambivalence about protests and other forms of direct action that can lead to confrontations with police or counter-demonstrators. Many Americans, and particularly Whites and those who identify as conservatives and Trump voters, negatively evaluate assertive political activities, particularly when they are performed by people of color.”
D.C. And Puerto Rican Statehood
“We find that there are popular pluralities in support of statehood for Washington, D.C. (44%) and Puerto Rico (47%), with another quarter of Americans on the fence and possibly persuadable,” says Rhodes. “However, Republicans are ardently opposed to statehood for either territory. Clearly, Republicans fear that statehood for these territories would shift the partisan balance in presidential and congressional elections to Democrats.”
“For decades, the residents of Washington, D.C., have decried their status as second-class citizens in the United States who, like the American colonists, experience taxation without representation,” Nteta says. “The movement to make Washington, D.C., a state has begun to resonate with the American public as a plurality of Americans express support, with close to 1-in-3 strongly supporting making D.C. the 51st state.”
“The current Congress may not approve of statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico, but roughly half of young people support it and few are opposed, compared to older Americans,” says Raymond La Raja, professor of political science at UMass and associate director of the poll. “As these Americans gain center stage in American politics, it is only matter of time before statehood is offered to these jurisdictions.”
The margin of error within this poll is 3.4%.
More results from the poll can be found at: www.umass.edu/poll
A few decades ago, an act of Congress authorized rather modest reparations payments to US residents of Japanese ancestry — including “native-born” American citizens — who were abruptly deprived of their liberty and property, and forcibly relocated to “internment camps” during WWII. No payments were made to their decedents, however. To interpret opinion polls like the one highlighted in this article, it might be helpful if future polls included “control” questions that probed the attitudes of Americans to such already-enacted reparations….