Poll: Most Americans support some goals of the 2020 racial reckoning
Most Americans say they still support goals of the 2020 racial reckoning, including increasing diversity in the workplace and school curricula and recognizing the legacy of enslavement, per a recent survey.
The big picture: Five years after George Floyd's death led to global protests, many of the corporate and institutional pledges inspired by them have fizzled under Trump 2.0. But the survey found glimmers of support for the ideas the protests helped make more mainstream.
Broadly, support for the Black Lives Matter movement is down, and President Trump made rolling back DEI and cracking down on immigration a second-term priority.
While much of the 2020 protests focused on policing, they also targeted a lack of diversity in corporate boards, universities built on slave labor, Confederate monuments and stolen Indigenous lands.
By the numbers: A majority of Americans (54%) agree that "efforts to increase diversity almost always strengthen an organization's workforce," the survey published in April by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found.
Eight in ten Americans (80%) say they prefer the U.S. be made up of people from all over the world. That group included 91% of Democrats, 83% of independents, and 73% of Republicans.
Just 15% said they prefer the country be primarily made up of people of Western European heritage.
51% are more likely to agree that "generations of slavery and discrimination against Black people and Native Americans have given white people unfair economic advantages."
86% agree that the nation's schools "should teach American history that includes both our best achievements and our worst mistakes."
Yes, but: Only around four in ten Americans (43%) hold favorable views of the Black Lives Matter Movement, while 49% had unfavorable views.
What they're saying: The success of BLM demonstrations can't be measured just by which police reforms passed and didn't, Phillip Atiba Solomon, CEO and co-founder of the Center for Policing Equity, tells Axios.
"The protests were about signaling the past due notice on an unpaid debt owed to the descendants of former slaves."
Solomon says those debts involved acknowledgement of past discrimination and the barriers that still exist.
David J. Johns, CEO and executive director of the National Black Justice Collective, tells Axios it's important to build on the lingering goals of the reckoning and form new coalitions.
"The goal is to really tap into that, to affirm for our folks that they're not crazy, that democracy has to be defended with each generation."
Methodology: The PRRI American Values Survey was conducted online from Feb. 28 to March 20. The poll is based on a representative sample of 5,025 adults (age 18 and older) living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia who are part of Ipsos' Knowledge Panel®.
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42 minutes ago
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Democratic governors slam Trump's military deployment in California as ‘flagrant abuse of power'
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Thursday's proceedings on Capitol Hill gave a high-profile platform to some of the Democratic Party's potential 2028 contenders to craft their response to the Trump administration's controversial immigration tactics, as the party seeks to calibrate its messaging on issues of crime and public safety. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called it wrong 'to deploy the National Guard and active duty Marines into an American city, over the objection of local law enforcement' and 'to tear children away from their homes and their mothers and fathers.' The Illinois governor condemned any violence, but he also delivered a warning to the Trump administration over potential plans to broaden the scope of the immigration crackdown, including the deployment of the National Guard in other states. 'We will not participate in abuses of power. We will not violate court orders. We will not ignore the Constitution. We will not defy the Supreme Court. We will not take away people's rights to peacefully protest,' Pritzker said. Hochul, Pritzker and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are testifying at a hearing focused on 'sanctuary state' policies. 'Sanctuary' jurisdictions is a broad term referring to jurisdictions with policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement actions, but the term is nebulously defined. Walz, who noted his state does not have so-called sanctuary legislation guiding enforcement policies, blasted the Trump administration's 'cruel and misguided policies.' 'We have a broken immigration system in this country. I think everyone in this room agrees with that. But nothing Minnesota has done to serve its own people stands in the way of the federal government managing border security and policies,' Walz said. And each governor laid the blame at Congress' feet for failing to adequately tackle comprehensive immigration reform. 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43 minutes ago
Trump signs measure blocking California's ban on new sales of gas-powered cars
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It comes as the Republican president is mired in a clash with California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, over Trump's move to deploy troops to Los Angeles in response to immigration protests. It's the latest in an ongoing battle between the Trump administration and heavily Democratic California over issues including tariffs, the rights of LGBTQ+ youth and funding for electric vehicle chargers. The state is already involved in more than two-dozen lawsuits challenging Trump administration actions, and the state's Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the latest one at a news conference in California. Ten other states, all with Democratic attorneys general, joined the lawsuit filed Thursday. 'The federal government's actions are not only unlawful; they're irrational and wildly partisan,' Bonta said. 'They come at the direct expense of the health and the well-being of our people.' 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an hour ago
Democrats condemn Sen. Alex Padilla's treatment at Noem news conference
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