According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 86 percent of African Americans "strongly disagree" with the not-guilty verdict in George Zimmerman's trial.
The Washington Post found that while the racial gap is "extremely wide" when it comes to reactions on the shooting of Trayvon Martin, most of the divide comes from differing points of views about race and its role in the criminal-justice system.
Among African Americans, 87 percent say the shooting was unjustified; among whites, just 33 percent say so. A slim majority of whites (51 percent) approve of the not-guilty verdict in the Zimmerman trial, while African Americans overwhelmingly and strongly disapprove. Some 86 percent of blacks disagree with the verdict — almost all of them disapproving “strongly.”
There is also a partisan tinge to the public views. Among whites, 70 percent of Republicans but only 30 percent of Democrats say they approve of the verdict.
Some of the reaction to the trial — among both blacks and whites — stems from wildly different views of the role of race in the criminal justice system more broadly. Fully 86 percent of African Americans say blacks and other minorities do not get equal treatment under the law; the number of whites saying so is less than half as large, 41 percent. A majority of whites, 54 percent, say there is equal treatment for minority groups.
Read more at the Washington Post.