On average, white and black Americans have different ideas as to what’s behind the recent unrest in Ferguson and Baltimore. A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll of 508 adults found that nearly two-thirds of African Americans felt that the unrest reflected “long-standing frustrations about police mistreatment of African Americans,” compared to less than one-third of whites.
In contrast, among whites, 58% believed that African Americans were just looking for an “excuse to engage in looting and violence.” A quarter of black respondents thought the same.
Though they may see it differently, almost everyone expects the uprising to reach more cities over the summer.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 3
Sebastian Spitz — May 20, 2015
I think the title you give this is misleading. Those who see this as representative of frusteration regaring police brutality may also recognize that this frusteration was expressed by some in the form of a riot
gasstationwithoutpumps — May 22, 2015
The two answers (frustration with police mistreatment and desire to loot) are not mutually exclusive. Both probably contributed to the unrest. For a single individual one or the other was probably dominant, and the number of looters was small enough that most people were probably driven more by the police mistreatment than by the desire to loot.
But it was the combination of both that escalated things to the point of major national discussion. The news media loves a riot.
Wayne Richardson — September 7, 2022
I’ll look at it two different ways. A lot of times Black people blame white people for being white. And a lot of times we think white people are racist when a lot of times white people are just CULTURALLY INSENSITIVE, And unaware of the plight of Black people. There’s a BIG difference.