A survey released by the Pew Research Center this week found that support for the Black Lives Matter movement has dropped double digits since June.
No doubt the violent protests that have swept through the nation over the summer have something to do with it.
A slight majority of Americans, 55 percent, still say they have at least some support for the cause, but that’s down from 67 percent in June, in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd.
The percentage of those who strongly support BLM has dropped by nearly 10 points, from 38 percent to 29 percent.
When it came to ethnic groups, the steepest decline in support for the movement was seen among white people.
In June, a majority of white people, 60 percent, backed BLM, but that number has dropped to 45 percent.
For Hispanics, support also dropped from 77 percent to 66 percent.
Black American backing for the movement remained consistent, even ticking up one percentage point to 87 percent.
However, the percentage of black Americans indicating strong support for BLM did fall, from 71 to 62 percent.
There was a major political divide among white Americans surveyed.
Nearly nine in ten white Democrats (88 percent) said they support Black Lives Matter in Pew’s most recent polling, compared to 16 percent of white Republicans.
The most recent figures were based on a poll of 10,093 adult respondents surveyed between Sept. 8 and Sept. 13, with a margin of error +/- 1.6 percentage points.
Pew linked the “protests” following the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last month to the decrease in support for BLM.
I would say that’s a safe assessment, given the Kenosha Fire Department reported that there were at least 34 fires associated with the civil unrest and 30 businesses destroyed.
Blake’s mother said of the destruction: “My family and I are very hurt, and quite frankly disgusted.”
President Donald Trump’s decision to send in National Guard troops, along with federal law enforcement officers, helped to quickly quell the riots.
Axios reported this week the looting, vandalism and arson nationwide following the death of Floyd in May will end up costing between $1 billion and $2 billion in insurance payouts, making it the most costly civil unrest in U.S. history.
In addition to being disgusted by the destruction, people also are likely differentiating their support for African-Americans being treated equally to the leftist organization Black Lives Matter.
In a 2015 interview, Patrisse Cullors, who co-founded the organization in 2013 along with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, identified herself and Garza as “trained Marxists.”
No doubt the group has also taken a hit in the minds of many for a statement that has since been taken down from its website regarding the nuclear family.
“We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another,” the website read under the subject of “What we believe,” according to PolitiFact.
It’s a shame that when GOP Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina sponsored legislation in June that would have provided meaningful reforms and training to help address police abuse, Democrats in the Senate blocked it.
Black lives, of course, matter, along with those of every other ethnic group: We’re all God’s children.
But Black Lives Matter is a leftist organization whose agenda would be destructive to the country.
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