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Damn white people, really?
Two new polls conducted by Reuters and The Washington Post show stark divides by race and ethnicity when it comes to perceptions about the death of Miami Gardens teen Trayvon Martin. A majority of minorities feels that Martin’s homicide was unjustifiable, while only about a third of whites feel the same way.
Here are the results of the Reuters poll question asking respondents to agree or disagree with the statement, “Trayvon Martin is an innocent who was unjustly killed”:
- 91 percent of Blacks agreed
- 59 percent of Hispanics agreed
- 35 percent of Whites agreed (16 percent disagreed, 48 percent neither agreed or disagreed)
Republicans were the group most likely to disagree with the notion that Martin’s death was unjustifiable: 24 percent disagreed compared to just 27 who agreed.
Though, a clear majority of 68 percent of Americans agree that we may never really know what happened that night, including 70 percent of whites and 69 percent of blacks.
Meanwhile a Washington Post poll showed similar results:
- 80 percent of Blacks say Martin’s death was unjustified.
- 38 percent of Whites said the same thing (56 percent say they didn’t know enough to say).
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