Republicans and Democrats. Black Lives Matter. White supremacists. As part of their recent poll of Southern blacks and whites, Winthrop University researchers introduced respondents to the “Feeling Thermometer,” and asked them to say how warm or cool they feel toward a person or thing.
The higher the rating, the more warmly the person felt about the subject. So 100 was hot love, and 0 was intense dislike. Fifty was neither supportive or opposed.
The Confederate flag picked up an unsurprising mean score of 16.5 (deep dislike) from black respondents. But the mean score among whites was 49.9, meaning white Southerners are mostly indifferent to the battle emblem.
» Poll of the South: Blacks and whites still far apart
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