Gallup polling shows surging support among Democrats for cash reparations for black Americans as redress for slavery.
A plurality of the Democratic Party — 49% — now say it’s time for the government to issue cash payments to the descendants of slaves.
Gallup released results of its survey Monday, which took place between June 19 and July 12 with a random sample of 2,542 adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
“While some Democratic presidential candidates have supported exploring reparations or other measures to address U.S. racial disparities, Democrats themselves are divided on the matter of cash-based reparations, “Gallup reported. “Currently, 49% of Democrats say the government should make such payments; 47% say it should not. Still, Democratic support is up from 25% in 2002, so there is momentum for reparations in the party.”
Forty-seven percent of Democrats said they did not support cash reparations, while 4% refused to answer or said they were undecided.
Other findings include:
- 92% of Republicans reject cash reparations.
- 65% of Independents reject cash reparations.
- 67% of Americans overall reject cash reparations.
- Hispanic respondents were split on cash reparations: 47% support, 46% reject.
- 73% of black respondents support cash reparations.
“While the current 29% support among all Americans is low in absolute terms, more support the idea of reparations today than did so in 2002, when 14% were in favor as the subject was making news,” Gallup reported. “Since then, support is up slightly among whites, from 6% to 16%, while it has increased more dramatically among blacks — from a simple majority in 2002 to nearly three-quarters today.”
Gallup’s survey has a plus or minus 2 percentage points margin of sampling error at the 95% confidence level.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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