Majority of Blacks will “never” vote for Trump, and his supporters think Blacks are “lazy” and “violent.”
By Sheryl Estrada
A Quinnipiac University poll published Wednesday revealed that 61 percent of American voters feel “the 2016 election has increased the level of hatred and prejudice in the U.S.” Of that 61 percent, 67 percent blame Trump and 16 percent blame Hillary Clinton. The poll also found that only 1 percent of Black voters back Trump compared to 91 percent who support Clinton.
Meanwhile, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that nearly half of Trump supporters are likely to describe African Americans as “violent” and more “criminal” than whites.
In the Quinnipiac survey, which asked the question, “Which comes closest to your view about Donald Trump: I will definitely vote for him; I will probably vote for him; I will probably not vote for him; or I will never vote for him,” 83 percent of Black people polled said “Never.”
At a rally in Redding, Calif.,earlier this month the presumptive Republican presidential nomineetried to earn favor with Blacks by singling out a man in the crowd and saying, “Look at my African American.” He called the man out after boasting of his support among Blacks.
Trump’s unpopularity with Black voters can be traced back to instances such as him barely disavowing an endorsement from former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.
Related Story: Trump Fears Alienating White Supremacist Voters
At Trump campaign rallies, meanwhile, Black protesters have not only been thrown out but have been threatened and sucker-punched and manhandled by Trump supporters.
Army veteran Alvin Bamberger wascaught on videoshoving young Black protester Shiya Nwanguma at a rally in Louisville, Ky.
According toMilitary.com, Bamberger said he “was caught up in the frenzy” of being surrounded by Trump supporters, including those he said were white supremacists, and of hearing the presidential candidate himself shout, “Get them out! Get them out!”
Related Story: Trump to Rally-goers: If You Hurt a Protester ‘I’ll defend you in court’
In the Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday, results showed that among voters, Trump supporters have the most critical views of Blacks.
The poll, conducted between March and June, interviewed 16,000 U.S. voters and included 21 questions on attitudes about race.
Nearly half of Trump supporters are likely to describe Blacks as “violent”and more “criminal” than whites, compared to voters who backed U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kaisch in the primaries, or who support Clinton. 40 percent of Trump supporters described Blacks as more “lazy” than whites.
The results also found that nearly one-third of Clinton supporters described Blacks as more “violent” and “criminal” than whites, and one-quarter described them as more “lazy.”
According to Reuters, “not all Trump supporters expressed negative attitudes about Blacks. No more than 50 percent of his supporters rated Blacks negatively, relative to whites, on any of the six character traits in the poll.”
However, Reuters adds that an analysis of the results showed Trump supporters were always more critical of Blacks on personality traits compared with responses from supporters of other candidates.
Even when the results were filtered to include only white respondents in order “to remove any impact that a different racial mix between Clinton and Trump supporters might play in the poll,” this trend was consistent in the data.
Diversity is also less important to Trump supporters. When asked about where they wanted to live, 36 percent of his supporters said, “I prefer to live in a community with people who come from diverse cultures.” The figures for Cruz supporters and Kasich supporters were 46 percent and 55 percent respectively.
While, 70 percent of Clinton supporters prefer to live in diverse communities.
In regards to social polices, 31 percent of Trump supporters said they “strongly agree” that “social policies, such as affirmative action, discriminate unfairly against white people,” compared with 21 percent of Cruz supporters, 17 percent of Kasich supporters and 16 percent of Clinton supporters.
