An increasing number of white youth are expressing support for the Black Lives Matter movement, according to a recent poll, the Associated Press reports.
Approximately 51 percent of young white adults between the ages of 18 and 30 say they strongly or somewhat support the movement, a 10-point increase since June, according to a GenForward poll. Some 42 percent said that they do not support the movement.
However, the study notes that most white youths also think that the movement’s rhetoric encourages violence against law enforcement, even as most black youth think that it does not. White youth are also more likely to think violence against police is a serious problem than to say the same about the killings of black Americans by the police.
As the AP notes, the poll shows that black, Hispanic and Asian youth show strong support for the Black Lives Matter movement, with 85 percent of black American young adults, 67 percent of Asian young adults and 62 percent of Hispanic young adults saying that they support protesters.
About 91 percent of young black adults say that killings of black people by the police is a very or extremely serious problem, while only 43 percent of young whites say the same. On the other hand, 63 percent of young whites think that violence against police is a serious problem, while 60 percent of young black Americans agree.
Only 19 percent of black Americans think that the movement’s rhetoric encourages violence against police, while 42 percent of Hispanics, 43 percent of Asian Americans and 66 percent of whites think the same.
The GenForward survey was conducted by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago with the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll of 1,958 young adults between the ages of 18 and 30 was conducted Aug. 1-14, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
