Public Religion Research Institute just released a very revealing study about Confederate flag and Confederate monuments in America. You can read the entire report here.
Here are a few of the findings that caught my attention:
- 72% of Americans believe that they are not responsible for discrimination against Black people in the past.
- 62% of Americans believe that white people in the U.S. have certain advantages because of the color of their skin.
- 62% of Americans believe that white supremacy is still a major problem in the U.S. today.
- 58% of Americans believe that “if we truly want to repent of the history of racism in the U.S., we must be willing to repair the damage it has done to generations of Black Americans.”
- 40% of Americans believe that if Black Americans “would only try harder, they could be just as well off as white Americans.”
- 26% of Americans say that racial problems in America are “rare, isolated situations.”
- 41% believe that discrimination against white Americans is as “big a problem a discrimination against Black Americans and other minorities.”
- White evangelicals are the most “structurally racist” religious group in America, followed by Mormons, white Catholics, and white mainline Protestants. The least “structurally racist” religious group is Black Protestants.
- 43% of Black Americans have experienced discrimination based on race or ethnicity.
- 29% of Americans are “aware of public displays of the Confederate flag in their community right now.”
- 22% of Americans are “aware of Confederate monuments in public spaces in their community right now.” (Residents of the South are more than twice as likely as those living elsewhere to say this).
- 51% of Americans support using Confederate monuments and memorials to preserve Confederate history. 46% are opposed.
- 87% of white Republicans (compared to 23% of Democrats) support efforts to “preserve the legacy of the Confederacy.”
- Among religious groups, white evangelicals “are most likely to support preserving the history of the Confederacy with memorials and statues (76%).
- 50% of Americans see the Confederate flag as a symbol of Southern pride. 47% of Americans see it as a symbol of racism.
- 78% of Americans view Civil War reenactments as an expression of Southern pride. 18% say reenactments are symbols of racism.
- 21% of Americans agree with this statement: “I feel a special sense of pride when I see statues or monuments that honor Confederate leaders or soldiers.” 75% disagree with this statement.
- 38% of Republicans say Confederate monuments “make them feel proud” compared to 16% of Independents and 14% of Democrats.
- 6% of Americans have volunteered or given money to groups that protect and preserve Confederate monuments in the past year.
- 6% of Americans have flown or displayed a Confederate flag in the past year.
- 55% of Americans have flown or displayed an American flag in the past year. White Americans (65%) are more likely than Hispanic Americans (42%) and Black Americans (32%) to have flown or displayed an American flag in the past year.
- 26% of Americans believe Confederate monuments should be left in place. 35% believe they should be left in place with “added information about the history of slavery and racism.” 28% say Confederate monuments should be “removed and put into a museum.” 10% say they should be “removed and destroyed.”
- 25% of Black Americans support removing and destroying Confederate monuments. 39% of Black Americans support removing Confederate monuments and placing them in a museum. 23% support keeping the monuments in place and adding historical context. 9% support keeping the monuments in place “as is.”
- 2% of white evangelicals believe monuments should be removed and destroyed. 12% of white evangelical Protestants believe monuments should be removed and placed in a museum. 40% of white evangelicals believe monuments should remain in place with added historical context. 44% of white evangelicals believe monuments should stay in place “as is.”
- 71% of Americans agree with the statement “when it comes to monuments and art in public spaces, everyone will be offended by something; there is no point in trying to please everyone.”
- 52% of Americans favor renaming schools and mascots “that have racist connotations.”
- 90% of Americans support “efforts to tell the truth about the history of slavery, violence, and discrimination against racial minorities.”
- 75% of Americans support “efforts that reconfigure or reimagine public spaces so they better represent everyone.”
- 74% of Americans support “efforts to repair the damage done by past violence or discrimination against racial minorities.”
There is so much more in the study. Check it out here.
As a student of the American South, these surveys drive me nuts. Why? Because no crosstabs by region. And I know they include region as a variable; one would expect no less of native Mississippian Robert Jones. But it matters if, say, “White Evangelicals” have distinctive racial attitudes and pro-Confederate attitudes because of the high numbers of white southerners in the category. For those of us who think of white southerners (after John Shelton Reed) as an ethnic group with a distinct set of cultural traits, a lot of what is being attributed to “religion” in current discourse may well be white southern tribal identity, which gets carelessly labeled as “Christian” because (and this is personal experience) many white southerners simply don’t know the difference between being “Christian” and being “southern.”