75% of Blacks in US fear physical assault due to race: Poll
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According to a new study, 75% of Black Americans are concerned that they or a loved one may be physically harmed because of their race.
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The poll surveyed 806 Black Americans.
A Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that 75% of Black Americans are worried about racially motivated physical attacks (32% are "very worried", while 43% are "somewhat worried"). Meanwhile, according to Newsweek, only 8% of respondents indicated they are "not at all worried."
The poll surveyed 806 Black adults and was published on Saturday, a week after a neo-Nazi teen committed a mass shooting in Buffalo that left 10 Black individuals dead, dubbed by the US President as "domestic terrorism."
Read more: US Buffalo shooter planned attack for months
According to CNN, Gendron stated that he picked Buffalo as the favored place for his attack because its zip code had a bigger Black population than other locations he was considering.
Following the tragic event, an anti-immigrant and white nationalist manifesto thought to have been uploaded by the youngster appeared online.
See this: The Buffalo shooter's gun; a white supremacist canvas
According to Gendron's manifesto, the shooting was inspired by a racist ideology known as the "Great Replacement" idea, which says that white Americans are in danger of being replaced by people of color.
The survey found that 53% of Black Americans believe racism will become worse in the near future as opposed to only 10% who believe it will improve.
Read more: Black women in US health care- underpaid, unprotected: Study
According to the poll, 27% of Black Americans believe "half" of white people share white supremacist ideals, while 35% believe "most" white people do. However, 8% of respondents stated "very few" white Americans believe in white supremacy.
Meanwhile, according to the study, 75% of Black Americans believe white supremacists are a "major threat" and 66% believe white supremacy is a bigger problem now than it was five years ago.
Respondents also highlighted some of the elements that lead to hate crimes across the country, with 63% claiming that easy access to weapons is a significant contributor to the problem. Meanwhile, 57% blame hate crimes on "personal family and upbringing," while 52% blame social media.
According to the Post/Ipsos poll, additional causes leading to hate crimes include a lack of tolerance in schools, mental health difficulties, a lack of personal links to Black people or television news, and "blaming Black people for their problems."
Following the massacre, the organization March for Our Lives chastised the country's authorities for failing to take preventative measures, claiming that "our country should have done everything in its power long before today to prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands. Instead, US gun worship empowers this white supremacist violence."
