Kneeling during the anthem? Americans’ opinions have shifted over the years, polls show
The majority of Americans say in a recent poll that kneeling during the national anthem is an acceptable form of protest.
The poll released Wednesday by CBS News and YouGov represents a shift in the public’s opinion since past NFL protests.
Fifty-eight percent of the 2,008 adults polled said it’s acceptable for a professional athlete to kneel during the anthem as a way to protest racial discrimination, CBS News said. The majority of Black (88%) and Hispanic (62%) people say kneeling is acceptable, while 48% of white people say the same.
Some MLB players have kneeled during the anthem during the first week of this season. NBA players are also expected to kneel when their season resumes Thursday, according to The Athletic.
In 2016, when then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began taking a knee to protest racial inequality, many Americans did not support his action. Sixty-one percent of Americans polled by Reuters then said they did not agree with Kaepernick and 72% said they thought it was unpatriotic.
A poll released at the same time by Survey Monkey showed 44% of respondents were not supportive of his protest and only 29% were, according to CBS Sports. The rest of the people polled were unsure.
Prior to the 2018 NFL season, 54% of respondents said kneeling is inappropriate in a poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal.
Stances on the matter now often align with political preferences. In this week’s CBS News/You Gov poll, 88% of Democrats agreed that kneeling is acceptable. Just 23% of Republicans agreed. There are also generational differences in opinion. Each age group becomes less accepting of the action — 74% approval for the 18- to 29-year-old age group down to 43% approval for Americans over 65 years old, according to the poll.
The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5%.
This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 6:55 AM with the headline "Kneeling during the anthem? Americans’ opinions have shifted over the years, polls show."