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Overall, among the 10,221 adults surveyed in July, 53 percent said the attention being given to the history of slavery and racism is a good thing, while 26 percent said it was a bad thing and 21 percent said it was neither good nor bad.
The survey “really does surface some divides along partisan lines and to a lesser extent, along racial and ethnic lines as well,” said Jocelyn Kiley, associate director of research at Pew.
At the low-end, 25 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said the heightened attention to racism is a good thing, while Democrats and Democratic-leaners across ethnic and racial lines overwhelmingly see the focus as positive at 78 percent overall. Hispanic Republicans are about twice as likely to say that the increased attention is good, at 42 percent versus 21 percent of non-Hispanic White Republicans.
Black Americans were the most likely to support the heightened public attention, at 75 percent, followed by Asian Americans at 64 percent, Hispanics at 59 percent and Whites at 46 percent.
While the survey did not ask respondents specifically about their thoughts on critical race theory or the New York Times’ 1619 Project, both have been at the center of conservative attacks in recent months. Republican lawmakers have sought to ban critical race theory, an intellectual movement that examines the way policies and laws perpetuate systemic racism, in public K-12 schools in at least 26 states, though scholars say that the theory is rarely taught outside of law school. Some of the legislation includes keeping instruction of the 1619 Project, a series of essays that examines how slavery shaped U.S. history, out of the classroom.
The survey also shows that just over a year after the murder of George Floyd sparked a racial reckoning, half of all American adults say “a lot” needs to be done to ensure racial equity, but were split on how best to do it.
About a quarter of the respondents said that necessary changes in U.S. laws and institutions can be made by working within current systems, while roughly the same percentage said that those institutions need to be completely rebuilt. About 34 percent said that only “a little” needs to be done to ensure equal rights, while 15 percent said that nothing at all needs to be done.
Since 2016, Pew has also tracked opinions on whether White people benefit from advantages that Black people do not have. Views among Democrats have changed significantly from 2016, when 38 percent agreed that White people benefit “a great deal” because of their race to 53 percent in 2021.
Among Republicans, little has changed in the last five years: Just 6 percent now agree that White people benefit a great deal, while 7 percent agreed in 2016.
Scott Clement contributed to this report.

