America’s next generation of college students, markedly liberal and who support Joe Biden nearly 3-to-1 over President Trump, have strongly adopted the positions of the Black Lives Matter movement, according to a sweeping new survey conducted for Yale University’s William F. Buckley Program.
Embracing the view that America is racist, 51% of undergraduates 24 years old or younger said that the nation is “inextricably linked to white supremacy” and that most minorities are “excluded from the American promise of equality.”
Even more, 64% said that whites who do not speak out against racism are “perpetuating the injustices” minorities face. That was a common theme promoted by white protesters at the recent protests.
And in a blow to those positions, the students, 52% to 31%, believe that taxpayers should pay reparations to the descendants, a bill that could reach $6.2 quadrillion, or $151 million per descendant, according to one study.
The survey was the sixth done by McLaughlin & Associates for the William F. Buckley Program at Yale. It was founded in 2010 by Yale students in a bid to promote intellectual diversity. Buckley, who died in 2008, started National Review and was considered one of the country’s leading conservative minds.
The latest McLaughlin survey covered several current issues, including the coronavirus, attending classes, views of the Constitution, and trust in the media. Some 59% do not trust the media, for example.
Several questions addressed race and the types of positions backed by liberals and the Black Lives Matter movement. In all, the largest groups of undergrads sided with the liberals.
Pollster Jim McLaughlin noted the difference in the views of the students to the fact that they grew up under the nation’s first black president, Barack Obama.
“The students in a country that elected a bi-racial president not once, but twice and has produced multiple black billionaires believe that their country is racist,” he said.
On the issue of defunding the police, as an example, 52% agreed.
Said the survey analysis, “By a 52% to 40% margin, students believe we should defund police departments because they are failing many communities.” Women more than men, 56%-47%, support defunding police departments.
And as the Black Lives Matter movement claims, that feeling is driven by concerns blacks are targeted by police.
As a result, looting during protests is justified. Said the analysis, “64% agree that due to systemic racism and the wrongful targeting of Black Americans by police officers, the recent rioting and looting is justified to some degree.”
On Monday, during a related protest, stores in Philadelphia were looted, and at least one police vehicle was burned after police killed a man armed with a knife. Some 30 officers were injured in the riots.
McLaughlin said, “Nearly two-thirds, say the rioting and looting is justified. What are these kids learning? That’s scary.”
The survey of 800 had a plus or minus 3.5% margin of error. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 52.9% of college students are white, 20.9% are Hispanic, 15.1% are black, and 7.6% are Asian.
