Pew survey shows support for BLM movement drops to new low

Support for the Black Lives Matter movement fell to a new low in polling released Wednesday, with most respondents saying an increased focus on race since 2020 hasn’t improved Black lives.

Among adults responding to the latest Pew Research Center survey, 51% said they support BLM, down from 56% in a March 2022 poll and the high-water mark of 67% recorded in June 2020 after the murder of George Floyd in police custody. Another 46% said they oppose BLM, a new high.

That’s the lowest level of support the nonprofit research center has recorded since it started polling the issue in August 2017. Pew recorded the previous low of support for BLM (55%) three times in its August 2017, September 2020 and September 2021 polls.

“A majority of Americans say the increased focus on issues of race and racial inequality in the past three years hasn’t led to changes that have improved the lives of Black people,” Pew researchers Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Kiley Hurst and Dana Braga wrote in a summary of the findings.

The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag first appeared on Twitter 10 years ago, Pew noted.

The latest survey found that 57% of adults said the increased focus on race over the past three years has not led to meaningful change for Black Americans. Another 40% disagreed, saying the focus on race had improved the lives of Blacks.

That represents a shift from the September 2020 poll, when 52% told Pew they thought an increased focus on race would bring about positive change and 46% predicted it would not.

While Republican attitudes toward this last question barely moved over the past three years, Pew noted a strong swing toward pessimism among Democrats and Blacks responding to the surveys. Nevertheless, 81% of Black Americans polled this year said they support BLM, making them the likeliest of any racial or ethnic group to favor the movement.

Overall, only 31% of respondents said they understand the goals of the BLM movement “extremely” or “very” well. One-third of those surveyed described the movement as “dangerous” and 34% called it “divisive.” Another 88% said they had viewed videos of police brutality against Blacks, with most saying it negatively impacted their trust in the police.

Pew conducted the nationally representative survey of 5,073 adult members of its American Trends Panel on April 10-16.