The New York Times - USA (2020-06-28)

24 N THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONALSUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2020

Struggle for Racial JusticeSigns of Progress

A majority of American voters
support the demonstrations
against police brutality and racial
injustice that have roiled the coun-
try over the past month, embrac-
ing ideas about bias within the
criminal justice system and the
persistence of systemic racism
that are central tenets of the Black
Lives Matter movement, accord-
ing to a new national poll of regis-
tered voters by The New York
Times and Siena College.
Fifty-nine percent of voters, in-
cluding 52 percent of white voters,
believe the death of George Floyd
at the hands of the police in Min-
neapolis was “part of a broader
pattern of excessive police vio-
lence toward African Americans,”
the poll found. The Black Lives
Matter movement and the police
had similar favorability ratings,
with 44 percent of registered vot-
ers viewing the movement as
“very favorable,” almost identical
to the 43 percent rating for the po-
lice.
The numbers add to the mount-
ing evidence that recent protests
have significantly shifted public
opinion on race, creating potential
political allies for a movement
that was, within the past decade,
dismissed as fringe and divisive.
It also highlights how President
Trump is increasingly out of touch
with a country he is seeking to
lead for a second term: While he
has shown little sympathy for the
protesters and their fight for ra-
cial justice, and has continued to
use racist language that many
have denounced, voters feel favor-
ably toward the protests and their
cause.
A survey of battleground states
critical to November’s election
largely mirrored the national re-
sults. Fifty-four percent of voters
in those states said the way the
criminal justice system treats
black Americans was a bigger
problem than the incidents of riot-
ing seen during some demonstra-
tions. Just 37 percent said rioting
was a bigger problem, though Mr.
Trump and his allies have tried to
discredit the protests by focusing
on some isolated incidents of vio-
lence.
It has not worked.
“I probably didn’t understand
what bringing people together
meant until Trump started talking
the way he does,” said Rita Hop-
kins, 55, from rural Clark County,
Mo., in the northeastern part of
the state. “Now I see what a presi-
dent says can divide people.”
Ms. Hopkins, a white registered
Democrat who describes herself
as a centrist, said she was particu-
larly galled by Mr. Trump’s com-
ments at one point during protests
over Mr. Floyd’s death that the Se-
cret Service had been prepared to
sic the “most vicious dogs” on pro-
testers outside the White House
gates.
The words immediately
brought to mind photos of the Ala-
bama police aiming snarling dogs
at peaceful black protesters.
“I hate to say it, but I had forgot-
ten about those pictures I had
seen,” said Ms. Hopkins, who lives
in an overwhelmingly Republican
county. “I kind of thought we had
gotten past that.”
The attitudes cut across race,
geography and educational sta-
tus, and speak to a country that
has been awakened through pro-
tests to complaints that black
Americans have long made about
police brutality and systemic rac-
ism. What began in the Democrat-
ic primary, in which white liberals
showed a new openness to candi-
dates speaking frankly about sys-
temic injustice, has continued into
the general election, with a spot-

light on Mr. Trump’s response.

The coalition of people sympa-

thetic to the protesters’ cause, in-

cluding Latino voters, exposes the

limits of Mr. Trump’s tendency to

exclusively speak directly to his

overwhelmingly white and con-

servative base. As with other is-

sues, including the coronavirus

pandemic, the administration’s

narrow focus has been derided by

experts and voters, who say the

governing strategy does not re-

flect the country’s broader inter-

ests, or the current political reali-

ties.

“Over the past six years, so

much of the work has been fo-

cused on convincing the country

— and convincing policymakers

and white communities that

there’s an actual problem,” said

Samuel Sinyangwe, an activist

and co-founder of Mapping Police

Violence. “Now there’s been uni-

versal condemnation of the

George Floyd incident and a rec-

ognition that things needs to

change.”

Aaron Perry, an alderman on

the City Council of Waukesha,

Wis., said he doesn’t support the

looting that took place after Mr.

Floyd’s death in various cities but

said it occurred on a small scale

relative to the peaceful protests

that broke out.

Mr. Perry, a 40-year-old white

man, describes himself as a cen-

trist but was compelled to switch

parties last year from Republican

to Democrat because of his sup-

port for marriage equality and le-

galization of cannabis. He called

himself a “never-Trumper” and

said that in 2016, he wrote in John

Kasich, then the governor of Ohio,

on the presidential ballot.

The death of Mr. Floyd was an

urgent message to the nation, he

said, to make changes to end the

kinds of police and societal behav-

ior that led to the episode.

“This is the last time we have a

chance to get this right. I’m on

board with that,” Mr. Perry said,

emphasizing, with an expletive,

that he really didn’t care if “most

of the people I represent don’t look

like” Mr. Floyd, and that issues of

racial justice matter for a major-

ity-white area, too.

Darrell Keaton Sr., a 49-year-old

black Democrat from Wausau,

Wis., several hours north of Mr.

Perry, said the protests after Mr.

Floyd’s death were monumental

for changing views on structural

racism in America. Finally, he

said, it feels like white people are

listening and joining in the pro-

tests.

“We have just been racking our

brains and screaming at the top of

our lungs for so many years that

we’re going to need other people

to stand up alongside the black

community to change anything,”

he said.

Though the poll over all shows

former Vice President Joseph R.

Biden Jr. in a very strong position,

especially on racial justice, and

voters’ belief in his ability to unite

a divided country, it also indicates

how difficult a task that could be:

More than 40 percent of white re-

spondents agreed in some meas-

ure that discrimination against

white people has become as big a

problem as other forms of dis-

crimination, reinforcing a theme

of white grievance politics that the

president and his supporters have

long expressed.

There are also broad genera-

tional gaps between how voters

are responding to the national mo-

ment of unrest. Every age bracket

said the use of force by the police

against black Americans was a

bigger problem than looting at

demonstrations; however, sup-

port for Black Lives Matter gets

more tepid among older voters,

the polls found. Sixty-seven per-

cent of voters ages 18 to 29 viewed

the Black Lives Matter movement

as “very favorable” as did 54 per-

cent of voters ages 30 to 44.

Among people 45 to 64, the sup-

port dropped to 37 percent, while

22 percent viewed the movement

as “somewhat favorable.” Voters

65 and over were the least per-

suaded: Only 31 percent had a

“very favorable” view of the Black

Lives Matter movement, and 25

percent had a “somewhat favor-

able” opinion.

Michael Berlinger, 67, who lives

in Lancaster, Pa., and considers

himself an independent voter, said

he thinks the Black Lives Matter

movement is too myopic. The pro-

tests over Mr. Floyd’s death have

been too destructive, he said.

“The whole message has been

undermined in a lot of ways,” said

Mr. Berlinger, a white retired

teacher. “I’m not a big fan of peo-

ple who break the law to say

they’re working for a cause. I

don’t think that’s the correct way

of doing it.”

The looting and the property de-

struction were “a dilution of the

message and the results they

wanted to achieve.” Mr. Berlinger

is likely to vote for Mr. Trump, he

said, but he described the choices

on the Republican and Democrat-

ic ballots, respectively, as one be-

tween “a lunatic and a senile sen-

ior citizen.”

“I think all lives matter,” Mr.

Berlinger said. “The black and

blue lives, and red, white and blue

lives.”

Charles Defever, a 28-year-old

Minneapolis Democrat, said he

felt this was a moment to get more

involved. His activism was limited

to the occasional comment in sup-

port of Black Lives Matter on so-

White Voters’ Views on Race Show Change

Recent protests have significantly shifted public opinion on race, creating potential allies for a movement that had been dismissed as fringe and divisive.

59%

Voters who believe George Floyd’s

killing was “part of a broader

pattern of excessive police violence

toward African Americans.”

40%

White respondents who believe that

discrimination against white people

is as big a problem as other forms

of discrimination.

By ASTEAD W. HERNDON

and DIONNE SEARCEY

JACKSON, Miss. — A flag
stamped with a defiant tribute to
Mississippi’s Confederate past
has been raised on the grounds of
the State Capitol for well over a
century.
It flew when the Civil War was
not yet distant history and when
segregation was fiercely enforced
by law. Through the fight for civil
rights and after remnants of the
Confederacy were toppled else-
where in moments of inflamed ra-
cial tension, the flag endured.
But on Saturday, as the state
flag embedded with the blue bars
and white stars of the Confederate
battle flag flapped from its pole in
front of the Capitol, lawmakers
gathered inside to wrestle over
whether to retire it to history.
The debate among lawmakers
and across the state has been
laced with passion, weighted by
the generations of pride and pain
the flag has long represented. It
was in many ways a familiar dis-
cussion, one rehashed through
decades of disagreement.
Yet as the flag was swept up in

the broader convulsions over ra-

cial history that were unleashed

by the death of George Floyd in

the custody of the Minneapolis po-

lice, there was a growing sense

that this time was different. A vote

to change the flag could come as

early as Sunday.

The flag, the only state banner

left in the country with an overt

Confederate symbol, has been the

target of opposition that crosses

racial, partisan and cultural di-

vides.

The Mississippi Baptist Con-

vention has called for it to be taken

down. So have state associations

of real estate agents, bankers, ed-

ucators and manufacturers. A star

football player at Mississippi

State University declared that he

would not play as long as the flag

remained, and Kermit Davis, the

University of Mississippi’s men’s

basketball coach, stood with other

coaches under the Capitol rotunda

and said changing it was “the

right thing to do.”

“I understand many view the

current flag as a symbol of her-

itage and Southern pride,” the

country music star Faith Hill, a

Mississippi native, said in a post

on Twitter, “but we have to realize

that this flag is a direct symbol of

terror for our black brothers and

sisters.”

Some have framed the debate in

moral terms, arguing that the flag

stands in the way of scabbing over

the wounds left by the past. Yet

the latest efforts for change have

gained momentum in large part

because of economic considera-

tions, with business and industry

leaders saying that the flag dis-

courages the investment needed

to boost one of the poorest states.

The financial threat had been

underscored by recent announce-

ments by the National Collegiate

Athletic Association and the

Southeastern Conference that

Mississippi would be precluded

from hosting championship

events until the flag is changed.

“Because of the N.C.A.A. and

the SEC, we can point to a quanti-

fiable damage, if you will, that is

occurring — a consequence, a

punishment,” Philip Gunn, a Re-

publican who is the State House

speaker, said in an interview on

Friday afternoon.

Still, the growing calls to

change the flag belie the extent of

the division that still exists over

the banner and how to interpret

the legacy it symbolizes. Various

polls show that, even as the num-

ber of people supporting a change

has increased, nearly half of the

state is resistant to the idea.

Many remain attached to the

flag because they see it as an en-

during recognition of the blood

shed by their ancestors who

fought for Mississippi and their

pride in the state’s history.

“We firmly believe that this po-

litical correctness, this movement

we are sensing out there right now

to delegitimize our American in-

stitutions and our American his-

tory is a movement that’s incredi-

bly dangerous and cannot be ap-

peased,” said Chris McDaniel, a

Republican state senator.

State lawmakers extended

their session that had been set to

end on Friday, paving the way for

a vote this weekend.

Legislation proposed on Satur-

day would abolish the old flag and

create a commission that would

design a new flag that would be

forbidden from having the Con-

federate battle emblem and must

include “In God we trust.” The

commission would be charged

with arriving at a design that

would be up for a vote on the No-

vember ballot.

One popular alternative has 19

stars encircling one larger star, an

acknowledgment of Mississippi

being the 20th state to join the un-

ion. That design had been known

as the Stennis flag until its de-

signer took her name off it be-

cause she is a descendant of a

longtime senator who supported

segregation.

Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican,

said on Saturday that he would

sign a bill to change the flag. The

announcement signals a marked

evolution in the governor’s think-

ing on the subject, as he had previ-

ously said that any decision over

changing the flag should be made

by voters, not lawmakers.

“The legislature has been dead-

locked for days as it considers a

new state flag,” Mr. Reeves said in

a statement. “The argument over

the 1894 flag has become as divi-

sive as the flag itself and it’s time

to end it.”

Mississippi has grappled over

Mississippi Lawmakers Wrestle Over the Future of a Flag With a Painful Past

By RICK ROJAS

Mississippi’s flag is the last to use an overt Confederate symbol.

ROGELIO V. SOLIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Alan Blinder contributed report-
ing from Atlanta, and Jonathan
Martin from Washington.