A new Pew Research Center survey indicates that more Americans consider racism a “big problem” than they have at any other point in the last two decades, while the share of those who consider it a “small” or non-existent problem continues to shrink.
Fifty-eight percent of Americans believe racism is a pervasive issue, an increase of eight percentage points since 2015, and more than double the 26 percent reported in 2009. But the change has largely been driven by Democrats, who are twice as likely as Republicans to believe that racism is a “big problem.”
Pew’s study suggests this change was spurred at least in part by the activism of Black Lives Matter; 55 percent of Americans say they support the group, with 80 percent of left-leaning voters reporting that they do so. Only 23 percent of Republican voters said they support the movement.
