Survey shows Southerners remain divided despite some past movement on systemic racism

The Brief

The most recent survey from E Pluribus Unum finds major divides by race on a range of issues and perspectives, including attitudes on COVID-19 vaccine usage, how to address the pandemic, causes of poverty, equality of opportunity, access to healthcare, whether systemic racism exists, and race relations.

Ahead of the 2020 presidential election and amidst the coronavirus pandemic, economic uncertainty, and the nation’s racial reckoning, EPU commissioned the 1,800-person survey (600 Black respondents, Latino respondents, and white respondents each) to track attitudes on race, class, and equity, as well as pertinent national issues and policies in the South. This is the third in a series of surveys by EPU focused on the American South, the first of which was released in October 2019. A second survey with a focus on the coronavirus pandemic was released in June 2020.

Key Findings – Survey of the South: October 2020