Almost seven in 10 Americans say they’ve felt hopeful as well as angry over the last few weeks as mass demonstrations against racial injustice have roiled the United States, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, with significant differences reported depending on political party and race.
The last two weeks have been a tumultuous time in the US. The killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day has sparked protests nationwide over police brutality and racism against black Americans.
While majorities in both parties felt hopeful and angry over the past two weeks, a much larger number of Republicans said they were hopeful (80% of Republicans and 63% of Democrats) and significantly more Democrats reported being angry (77% of Democrats and 55% of Republicans).
Overall, 41% of Americans overall said they felt proud. Broken down by party, Republicans were more likely to say they feel proud compared to Democrats: 58% of Republicans vs. 27% of Democrats.
By comparison, Democrats are significantly more likely to cite being overwhelmed, ashamed and scared than Republicans.
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Overall, 54% of Americans report being overwhelmed in the last two weeks, 53% ashamed and 41% scared.
Almost two-thirds of Democrats say they’ve been overwhelmed (62%) compared to 44% of Republicans, while 66% of Democrats and 41% of Republicans have said they’re ashamed. Fifty-four percent of Democrats report being scared, while only 29% of Republicans agree.
The poll also found that people of color reported feeling overwhelmed and scared in much higher numbers than white people. While white people didn’t vary significantly from the overall percentage of Americans on many of the emotions, 57% of people of color said they were overwhelmed, compared with 53% of white people. Additionally, 48% said they’ve been scared over the past two weeks, compared with 38% of white people.
Young people are the group most likely to say they’ve been overwhelmed in the past two weeks: 67% of those younger than 35 years old who said so, compared to 38% of those older than the age of 65.
Americans over the age of 65 are more likely to say they’re hopeful and proud.
Three quarters (76%) of those over 65 say they’ve been hopeful, compared with 69% of those under the age of 35. Half (50%) of people over 65 report feeling proud; 36% of those under the age of 35 feel the same.
The CNN Poll was conducted by SSRS June 2 through 7 among a random national sample of 1,006 adults reached on landlines or cellphones by a live interviewer as part of the SSRS Omnibus survey. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points