According to a new Pew Research Center report released Wednesday, the Black Lives Matter movement has lost popularity among Americans in the last three years.
According to Pew, 51% of Americans strongly or somewhat support the Black Lives Matter movement. According to the organisation, this is a decrease from over 70% of Americans who voiced support for the campaign in the aftermath of George Floyd's killing in 2020 and 56% last year, reports CNN.
According to the report, the waning support is mostly due to a decline in the proportion of white individuals who say they support the movement. According to Pew, the total number of Black and Hispanic adults who voiced support has remained stable over the last year.
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Eighty-one percent of Black adults back the movement. According to the poll, 63% of Asians and 61% of Hispanics agreed, compared to 42% of white adults.
According to the research, when asked which words best define the movement, over one-third of Americans said "dangerous" and "divisive" describe it extremely or very well, the report said.
However, there were considerable disparities across races and ethnic groupings. While white adults were more likely than other groups to think the phrases "dangerous" and "divisive" characterize the Black Lives Matter movement extremely or very well, 50% of Black adults said the word "dangerous" does not describe the movement very well or at all, according to the report.
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According to Pew, Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans are all more likely than white adults to say the phrase "empowering" characterizes the movement extremely or very well. However, almost one-third, or 34%, thought the same thing about the word "divisive".
Adults under 30 were more likely to support the movement than those in all other age categories. The research also revealed a large ideological divide.
According to the research, 84% of Democrats and Democratic leaners favour the Black Lives Matter movement, while 82% of Republicans or Republican leaners reject it, the report also said.
Americans also shared their thoughts on the movement's influence on a variety of problems. According to the study, around 32% of Americans believe the movement has been extremely effective in drawing attention to racism towards Black people. According to Pew, a smaller proportion of US respondents said the movement had a similar influence on enhancing police accountability (14%), improving the lives of Black people (8%), and improving racial relations (7%).
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These findings are based on an online survey conducted from April 10 to April 16 among a random sample of 5,073 persons in the United States, derived from panels initially recruited using probability-based approaches, the report concluded.