Most Black people want reparations. They don't believe America will give them any

Most Black people want reparations. They don't believe America will give them any

In 2020, Black people protested George Floyd's death and made their voices heard at the ballot box in record numbers.

More than a year later, they have grown more pessimistic about sweeping change across the United States but remain steadfast in demanding reparations and police reform, polling shows.


About 45% of Black people in the nation said equality is not likely to happen, according to a Pew Research Center survey released on Aug. 30.


Yet nearly 9 in 10 Black adults want to see aspects of the courts and other parts of the criminal justice system reformed, the survey said.

And 77% of Black adults said descendants of people enslaved in the nation should receive compensation, though most respondents think they will not see it in their lifetimes.

Kamilah Moore, a reparational justice scholar and chair of California's reparations task force, said the survey's findings show the need for change.

"Black pessimism is kind of ingrained in us," she said. "I think rightfully so because of what we've had to endure in this country. But then there's also, and always has to be, that critical mass of Black folks who are like, 'Yeah, we're retaining that pessimism, but we're still going to move accordingly. We're still going to fight for our rights.'"

The wide-reaching survey conducted in October 2021 serves as a snapshot of Black attitudes on race, even as many rallying cries for voting rights and rethinking the criminal justice system have not come to fruition since Floyd's death.

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