Twenty percent of Americans say in a new poll that they support the reparations, but an overwhelming majority still oppose payments aimed at addressing the legacy of slavery and addressing the persistent wealth gap between black and white Americans.
The Reuters / Ipsos poll released Thursday found that 1 in 5 respondents said the United States should use “taxpayer money to pay damages to the descendants of enslaved people in the United States.”
The results were divided sharply along partisan lines, with 80 percent of Republicans saying they oppose the reparations, while about a third of Democrats said they were supportive. The results were also divided between races, with 10 percent of white respondents supporting the idea and half of black respondents supporting it.
Supporters said the payments would recognize the lingering effects of slavery and systemic racism that still plague the country.
The United States has paid for reparations in the past, paying money to Japanese Americans interned during World War II.
The new poll comes amid shifting perceptions of race amid growing protests of racism and police brutality following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody last month.
A separate Reuters / Ipsos poll found that 72 percent of Americans understood “why African Americans don’t trust the police,” 17 points above a similar poll in 2015, and 59 percent said the police were Too violent when dealing with people suspected of crime, up to 15 points since 2016.
Congress began grappling with reparations, and Democrats introduced a bill in 2019 to establish a commission to examine the impacts of slavery in the U.S. and recommend ways to compensate descendants of slaves.
That legislation has languished in Congress.
Former vice president Joe Biden
Joe Biden Fox News Polls: Trump, Biden Neck and Neck in Georgia, North Carolina, Texas A Generation Z alarm clock in the ballot box Verizon says it will pull ads from Facebook, Instagram MORE, the alleged Democratic presidential candidate, has said he would back a commission to study the possibility of providing reparations.
The latest Reuters / Ipsos polls surveyed 1,115 adults from June 10 to 16 asking about their thoughts on slavery and 4,426 adults during the same time period asking about racial issues. Both surveys have credibility intervals of between 2 and 3 percentage points.
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