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| Recent reporting from the Daily Mail on reparations |
In reporting seemingly designed to downplay the seismic shift underway in public opinion on reparations, the Daily Mail has claimed that the most important narrative to be told based on their recent polling is that not quite a majority of Americans do not support reparations for slavery. That many Americans do not support reparations for slavery is of course, not news, seeing as how that has been the majority position since the end of the Civil War. However, the real development masked by Daily Mail reporting is the increasing percentage of Americans who are not opposed to reparations. The newspaper’s own polling indicates that a majority of Americans are not opposed to reparations for slavery. This development follows on the heels of earlier polling (noted previously in the DNJRJR) which suggested that this was only the case for younger Californians. However, at this point it appears that public opinion in general may have shifted significantly among both older voters and even in other, less progressive states. In spite of the negative framing in Daily Mail reporting, supporters of reparations initiatives can be encouraged that by the apparently significant success they are having in winning supporters to their cause.
Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Ph.D.
Reparations Commission Research Historian
