Publication Summary
As we track the attitudes of Black Americans, shifting pain into power continues to define Black political participation, from the 2020 summer of unrest, the recent general election, and now reimagining public safety. Black people continue to say that addressing racism and discrimination should be the number one priority for America’s leaders to address. After a year of racial reckoning, Black American attitudes on policing have shifted with now a majority supporting “Defund the Police.” Black people are expressing political power in their pain and are more optimistic about their future, expecting their political leaders to make progress on the issues that matter to them the most.
Noteworthy in this BlackTrack: Black American’s attitudes towards defunding the police have shifted, with a majority of Black Americans (53%) supporting defunding the police. After asking respondents if they agree with “funding community resources, schools, and healthcare while redirecting resources from and overhauling our police departments,” support for the policy increased from 53 percent to 67 percent. The shift represents one of the highest records of Black support for the policy to reallocate police funding.
About BLACKtrack
BlackTrack is HIT Strategies’ recurring monthly national survey of 1,000 Black voters ages 18+ on current social and political issues. BlackTrack tracks Black Americans’ opinions and disaggregates the data into demographic groups to understand Black voters’ full diversity. The majority of BlackTrack data is proprietary and only available for subscribers. For more information on previous data or to subscribe, go to hitstrat.com/blacktrack.
