Name: Most Ohioans support Black Lives Matter, feel whites are privileged but often misunderstood, poll finds
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Most Ohioans support Black Lives Matter, feel whites are privileged but often misunderstood, poll finds

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NEW!3,342sharesCLEVELAND, Ohio – More Ohioans support the Black Lives Matter movement and believe that the country’s racial problems are not just rare and isolated incidents than do not, according to a newly released poll.The Baldwin Wallace University Great Lakes Poll also found that while an overall majority of Ohio voters agree that white people enjoy some advantages because of their skin color, they also believe that society does not fully understand rural white Americans' daily struggles.The poll released Thursday included 1,011 Ohioans who said they are registered and likely to vote. The polling took place between Sept. 8 and Sept. 22 on a host of topics, including which candidate they planned to support in the November general election. The poll has a margin of error of 3.3%.Those who identified as Republicans bucked the majority of their Buckeye colleagues in almost every category regarding race. Majorities of GOP voters who responded to the polls said they oppose the Black Lives Matter movement and rejected the notion that whites have certain advantages due to their skin color, the poll found. A sizable majority also believe that the country’s racial problems are rare and isolated.While it may come as no surprise that Black Lives Matter polled well among Democratic voters, the movement pulled enough support from self-identified Independent voters to garner more than 52% support, the poll found.Researches at Baldwin-Wallace, Ohio Northern University and Oakland University in Michigan also saw nearly identical results in polls of voters in three other Great Lakes states: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.Race and social justice remain some of the most prominent issues in the 2020 election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, as police killings of Black men and women earlier this year sparked a summer of sustained protests and calls for police reforms. Some of those protests turned into violent clashes between police and protesters and have become political lightning rods.In all four states critical to the 2020 election, a majority of respondents said they either strongly or somewhat supported the Black Lives Matter movement. They also said that they believe racial issues aren’t just isolated incidents and that being white affords people certain advantages. However, most acknowledge that there is also a misunderstanding of white, often poor Americans who live in rural communities.Tom Sutton, a political science professor at Baldwin Wallace and director of the Community Research Institute that conducts the Great Lakes Poll, said the breakdown of the results shows that most Ohioans fall in the middle of the social media arguments and far left-wing and right-wing portrayals.“The respondents in Ohio see that there are issues both for people living in rural areas and Black communities,” Sutton said.Support for Black Lives MatterBlack Lives Matter has organized protests across the nation since its founding in 2013. Following the killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville and others, the movement led the conversation on police reform and in June, nearly two-thirds of Americans supported the protests,.Baldwin Wallace’s poll found that the group pulled in a slim majority support across the four Great Lakes states into this month.About 52.6% of Ohioans polled said they either strongly or somewhat supported Black Lives Matter, compared to 41.3% who strongly or somewhat oppose the group. The group is slightly more favorable among women (54.9% net approval) than men (50.5% net approval).Broken down by party affiliation, more than eight in 10 Democrats supported the group while nearly 70% of Republicans polled said they opposed it.A majority of Democratic voters, 56.5%, said they strongly supported Black Lives Matter. Another 26.3% said they supported the group somewhat. On the flip side, 52.4% of Republican voters expressed strong opposition to the movement, with 17.3% somewhat opposed to it. Only 22.7% of Republicans expressed any support for the Black Lives Matter movement.The partisan gaps aren’t necessarily surprising to Sutton, given the political landscape over the previous decade. What interested him was the support that Black Lives Matter received from respondents in the middle, who identify as moderate or as Independent voters. Among those voters, 30.1% said they strongly supported Black Lives Matter, and 24.5% said they somewhat supported the group, for a net 54.6%. Twenty-two percent said they strongly opposed the group, with 17.9% expressing they somewhat opposed it.“I think this 54% support indicates there are people who say, ‘we need the police, but there are reforms that are needed, and to the extent that Black Lives Matter indicates the need for that reform, I support them,’” Sutton said.Other issues surrounding raceSimilar partisan gaps showed on other issues surrounding race.When asked to what degree respondents agreed with the statement that white people in the U.S. have certain advantages because of their skin color, 56.5% of Ohioans responded that they either strongly or somewhat agreed, compared to 43.5% who said they disagreed.Almost 80% of Democratic voters agreed with the sentiment, while 56.6% of Independents said they agreed.On the flip side, just 33.7% of Republican voters agreed either strongly or somewhat, while 37.6% GOPers said they strongly disagreed.Republican voters were also in the minority when asked whether they believed the nation’s racial problems are isolated and rare.About 84.5% of Democrats and 70% of independents responded that they do not believe that sentiment. Just over half, or 50.5%, of Republicans said they agreed that racial problems in the U.S. are rare.Republicans and independents split from Democrats when it came to whether society fully understands the struggles faced by white people living in rural communities.Overall, 55% of Ohioans felt that society misunderstands the struggles of rural whites. That includes the majority of those on the right, at 69.2%, and 54.2% of Independent voters.Nearly 59% of Democrats disagreed with the question.Sutton said that pollsters intentionally avoided using terms that have become too politicized, like “white privilege,” but that the poll shows a majority of the respondents express at least some acknowledgment of the principle overall.“What we do about it becomes a whole different story, and question,” Sutton said.Sutton said the poll results help explain how Trump was able to galvanize support from rural white voters who felt that the Democratic Party had gone bi-coastal and has largely ignored the needs of rural voters, which make up a large portion of Ohio.As Trump battles for his re-election against Biden, Sutton said the poll shows there may be some room on race issues for a candidate to win over those in the middle.“The respondents in Ohio see that there are issues both for people living in rural areas and Black communities,” Sutton said. this week will publish a series of stories digging deeper into the findings of this poll. Find those stories, as well as stories from previous BW polls, at .Read more storiesNote to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

NEW!3,342sharesCLEVELAND, Ohio – More Ohioans support the Black Lives Matter movement and believe that the country’s racial problems are not just rare and isolated incidents than do not, according to a newly released poll.The Baldwin Wallace University Great Lakes Poll also found that while an overall majority of Ohio voters agree that white people enjoy some advantages because of their skin color, they also believe that society does not fully understand rural white Americans' daily struggles.The poll released Thursday included 1,011 Ohioans who said they are registered and likely to vote....

Most Ohioans support Black Lives Matter, feel whites are privileged but often misunderstood, poll finds

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