GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. Photo courtesy of AL.com
Throughout his race for the White House, presidential candidate Donald Trump has made some pretty offensive comments about Blacks and other minorities in this country. So it’s unsurprising when a majority of his avid supporters share those same bigoted beliefs.
According to a recent poll by Reuters/Ipsos, Trump supporters are more likely to view African-Americans as “criminal,” “unintelligent,” “lazy”, and “violent” compared to voters who backed his Republican rivals in the primaries, Reuters reports.
The survey, conducted between March and June, polled around 16,000 Americans and featured 21 questions on attitudes about race. The results revealed that a large number of Americans from both political parties viewed Blacks in a negative light. According to Reuters, Republicans in the survey expressed racial concerns to a greater degree than Democrats, but Trump supporters held the most critical views of Blacks.
For example, over half of voters who support the real-estate tycoon described African-Americans as more “violent” than whites. The same portion viewed Blacks as more “criminal” than whites, while 40 percent described them as more lazy, the news site reports.
When it came to where they lived, 36 percent of Trump supporters said, “I prefer to live in a community with people who come from diverse cultures,” compared to 46 percent of Ted Cruz supporters and 55 percent of John Kasich supporters. Cruz and Kasich ended their presidential bids near the end of the presidential primary.
The poll also found Trump supporters to be more critical of affirmative action policies that favor minorities, viewing them as “discriminatory” toward white people.
Not all of the Republican candidate’s supporters expressed negative opinions of Blacks, however. According to Reuters, no more than 50 percent of Trump-lovers rated Blacks negatively, compared to whites, on any of the six character traits in the poll.
In addition to examining the racial attitudes of Republican voters, the survey also looked at the attitudes of Democratic voters. For example, supporters of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton also viewed Blacks more negatively compared to whites concerning specific personality traits, Reuters reports.
According to the poll, close to a third of her supporters described African-Americans as more “violent” and “criminal” than whites, while one-quarter viewed Blacks as more “lazy” than whites. Seventy percent said they would prefer to live in a community that was diverse.
When compared to the responses given by Trump supporters, Clinton advocates gave answers that were quite similar. For example, the poll reports that 32 percent of Trump supporters placed whites closer to the top tier of “intelligence” than they did African-Americans; 22 percent of Clinton supporters did the same.
In another instance, 44 percent of Trump-lovers described whites as more “well mannered” than Blacks, compared to 30 percent of Clinton supporters.
Stephen Miller, a senior policy adviser for Trump, disagrees with the poll and the negative light it shines on the GOP presidential candidate and his supporters.
“Mr. Trump is an egalitarian who believes in supporting and protecting all people equally,” Miller said. “This is a stark contrast to Hillary Clinton, whose policies have been a disaster for African-American and Hispanic citizens.”
Earlier this month, a similar study conducted by political scientist Philip Klinker found that racial anxiety toward Blacks, immigrants, and Muslims are the driving force behind support for Trump, Atlanta Black Star reports.
