Poll: Black Americans fear more racist attacks after Buffalo shooting

Three-quarters of Black Americans are worried that they or someone they love will be attacked because of their race, according to a nationwide Washington Post-Ipsos poll conducted after a gunman killed 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket, allegedly targeting members of the mostly Black neighborhood.The Post-Ipsos poll of Black Americans finds most are saddened and angered by the attacks, but just 8 percent say they are “surprised.” Even before the shooting, in earlier poll questioning, Black people saw racism as one of their greatest threats. She said that, despite the guilty conviction last year of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, she did not have hope that Black people were safe from attack, either by police or other Americans.Like Cannon, Black Americans overall see the Buffalo mass shooting not as a fringe attack but reflective of broader racism in the country, the Post-Ipsos poll finds. And it’s guaranteed by the Constitution.”In that sense, he said, people seem bolder than ever before in making clear their anti-Black racism.“The rock has been turned over and the racism is out there, and people feel a lot more free to express it,” he said.A barrage of 'never-ending gunshots': Inside the Buffalo massacreThe Post-Ipsos poll finds 65 percent of Black Americans say it is a “bad time” to be a Black person in America, up from 56 percent immediately before the Buffalo shooting and now matching the level of pessimism from January 2020, three years into Donald Trump’s presidency.Even before the Buffalo shooting, racism, gun violence and police brutality were the top three threats listed by Black people in the poll, with between 84 percent and 86 percent saying each is a “major threat.”Majorities of Black Americans also called other issues major threats to Black people in America, including 82 percent who cited the criminal justice system, 76 percent the cost of health care, 73 percent restrictions on voting rights, 72 percent lack of economic opportunity and 71 percent drugs. Another 61 percent of Black people said lack of access to education is a major threat, while about half said the same for pollution (53 percent) and climate change (47 percent).In Memphis, Dexter Banks, the son of civil rights activists, said that overt racism and White nationalism is being tolerated even more by mainstream Americans of all backgrounds — particularly White Americans.To Banks, 48, it is evidence that powerful forces are at work to rationalize what happened to Floyd and to the victims in Buffalo’s East Side community, blunting the push for substantive changes in the treatment of Black Americans.Racism “is considered to be more of an expression of free speech as opposed to what it really is,” said the Memphis resident. Ain’t nothing improved at all for Black people,” she said.Floyd’s death sparked prolonged concern for race and racism, but it’s still unclear what that meansBlack Americans have nuanced opinions on the best way to solve crime in their communities, according to the Post-Ipsos poll.