Americans largely do not want Blacks to obtain cash reparations

(Defender News Service) — The majority of Americans are not in favor of the Black community getting cash reparations, according to the results of a new poll.

The research, which was conducted by Gallup and released Monday, surveyed a random sample of 2,543 Americans via phone interviews taken from June 19 to July 12 of this year. Among the U.S. residents who took the poll, 67 percent say they are opposed to the government issuing cash to Americans who are descendants of enslaved Africans. Still, the majority of Black Americans are in favor of such a payout making up the bulk of the 29 percent of people who say cash reparations should be doled out.

Other findings in the poll reveal that overall support for monetary reparations is up by 15 percent compared to 2002 when only 14 percent of Americans favored the move. Back then, 81 percent of people said they did not support cash reparations.

The poll comes at a time when several Democratic presidential candidates have voiced backing for looking into reparations or other methods of tackling racial disparities in the U.S.

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, California Sen. Kamala Harris, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg are among those who’ve claimed to back the idea of reparations, although the latter has explicitly said he is against giving cash for them. Buttigieg unveiled a plan in support of the Black community that would go hand-in-hand with other reparations solutions. Meanwhile, Booker introduced a reparations bill as a companion to HR 40 that would establish “a commission to study the impact of slavery and continuing discrimination against African-Americans and make recommendations on reparation proposals for the descendants of slaves,” a press release issued by the senator stated.

Still, there is some division among Democratic voters on their feelings about reparations focused solely on money. The poll reveals 49 percent of Democrats say the government should give cash to descendants of enslaved people but 47 percent oppose that. On the Republican side, however, support for cash reparations is tiny. Within the party, five percent are for it while the overwhelming majority — 92 percent — is against it. While support for cash reparations on the Dems side has grown, it has remained stagnant on the Republican front.

In general, however, there has been an increase in the number of people who recognize Black Americans face lesser treatment in the U.S. A Gallup poll conducted in 2018 revealed a seven percent overall increase in people who felt Black Americans face less fair treatment compared to white Americans.

This article originally published in the August 5, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.