Recent pushes to remove Rebel symbols from government sites and bring an end to the celebration of Confederate holidays have apparently had little impact on public opinion.
The results of a CNN poll on the Confederate battle flag are nearly the same as 15 years ago, with most respondents describing the Rebel emblem as a symbol of pride and heritage. The poll shows that 57 percent of Americans see the flag more as a symbol of Southern pride than as a symbol of racism, about the same as in 2000 when 59 percent said they viewed it as a symbol of pride.
Efforts to remove the flag have stepped up since a white supremacist who displayed the Rebel emblem on social media was charged last month in the killing of nine black worshippers at a Charleston, S.C., church.
Opinions of the flag are sharply divided by race, and among whites, views are split by education.
Among African-Americans, 72 percent see the battle flag as a symbol of racism, while just 25 percent of whites agree. In the South, the racial divide is even broader. In the South, 75 percent of whites describe the flag as a symbol of pride and 18 percent call it a symbol of racism. Among Southern African-Americans, 11 percent see it as a sign of pride and 75 percent view it as a symbol of racism.
Among whites, there’s a sharp divide by education, and those with more formal education are less apt to see the flag as a symbol of pride. Among whites with a college degree, 51 percent say it’s a symbol of pride, 41 percent one of racism. Among those whites who do not have a college degree, 73 percent say it’s a sign of Southern pride, 18 percent a symbol of racism.
The poll was conducted June 26-28 among a random national sample of 1,017 adults. The margin of error for the overall poll was 3 percentage points. Among the smaller sample of African-Americans, the margin of error was 5.5 points.
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