While black adults approve by more than a 4-to-1 margin athletes’ protests of perceived excessive police violence against black people, white adults disapprove of the protests by a more than 2-to-1 margin, according to a poll released Tuesday by Quinnipiac University.
Overall, American adults disapprove of the protests, led by Colin Kaepernick’s decision to kneel during the national anthem, 54 to 38 percent.
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More specifically, black adults approve of the protests 74 to 17 percent, while white adults disapprove 63 to 30 percent, the study found.
"There is a profound racial divide over athletes who refuse to stand for the National Anthem and deep differences over whether the police can be trusted," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University poll.
The poll also found that whites approve 70 to 20 percent of how "police in the U.S. are doing their job," while black Americans disapprove by a 67 to 24 percent margin.
But black people are generally satisfied with how their own communities are being policed, with 68 percent answering favorably to a question about how "police in your community are doing their job," and 25 percent disapproving. White folks approve of their police in their neighborhoods, 88 to 8 percent.
One aspect blacks and whites agree on is that police should not violate civil liberties to prevent crimes, blacks by an 83 to 15 percent margin, and whites 71 to 23.
The poll of 1,391 adults, 249 of whom are black (weighted to their share of the population) was conducted via phone from Oct. 7-9. It has a margin of error of 2.6 percent overall and 6.2 percent for black adults. All of the survey’s findings can be seen here.