The results of a public opinion survey released Thursday show that most White Americans believe that the Confederate Flag is more representative of “Southern pride” than racism, even after a Confederate sympathizer opened fire and killed nine people inside a black church in Charleston, S.C.
A CNN/ORC poll revealed that 66 percent of whites “viewed [the flag] as a symbol of pride,” while 72 percent of blacks deemed it a “symbol of racism.”
Just one-in-four whites shared the majority of Black Americans’ views on the symbol, while slightly over half the country—57 percent of Americans—said the flag represented “Southern pride” more than racism.
In the south, opinions on the issue are more sharply divided on racial lines. Below the Mason-Dixon line, three-quarters of whites view the Confederate flag as a symbol of Southern pride, while 18 percent see it as racist. Among Southern blacks, 75 percent see it as racist, while just 11 percent view it as a symbol of regional patriotism.
The survey raises questions about whether Republicans who denounced the flag after the June 17 Charleston shooting will be rebuked by their mostly-white conservative base.
“Republican politicians who have called for the flag to be taken down might not be doing exactly what their states would like them too,” The Washington Post’s Amber Phillips pointed out after the results of the poll were published.
The first black US Senator from South Carolina, Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) were among conservatives who called on the state of South Carolina to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of its state capitol.
Despite the wide difference in opinion between white and black Americans, the poll revealed that a 55-43 majority of the country supports “removing the Confederate flag from government property that isn’t part of a museum.”
