London - The outpouring of pent-up frustration over racism in the UK surprised many whites.
Who did not think that the country had made great strides towards tolerance and equal opportunities in recent decades?
Who feared that statues of slave traders were still present in the towns and villages of the Union?
Who wondered if Black Lives Matter in Britain?
The answer: Many, many blacks, whose opinions on race and racism in the UK are profoundly different from those of most whites, according to a new exclusive and exclusive survey by CNN / Savanta ComRes.
Blacks are at least twice as likely as whites to say that there is discrimination in the British police and media; three times more likely to believe that the country has done far too little to address historic racial injustice; and much more likely to believe that the ruling Conservative Party is an institutional racist.
CNN and Savanta ComRes interviewed 1,535 British adults aged 18 and older online from June 12 to 14, including at least 500 blacks and other respondents from ethnic minorities. The margin of error for the full sample is ± 2.5 percentage points.
Source: CNN / Savanta ComRes
When it comes to policing, it's not just a matter of perceptions. Blacks and whites report very different personal experiences with law enforcement.
Blacks are twice as likely as whites to say that they have not been personally treated with respect by the police, with half (49%) of blacks and a quarter (26%) of whites reporting this experience.
Blacks are also twice as likely to say that a friend or family member was not treated with respect by the police: six in 10 (59%) blacks said so, compared to three in 10 whites (31%).
Source: CNN / Savanta ComRes
And blacks are twice as likely as whites to say British police are institutionally racist - but even among whites, just over a quarter of people believe it: 27% of whites said, compared to 54 % of blacks.
CNN requested a response from the National Council of Chiefs of Police. The Metropolitan Police, which covers the greater London area, declined to comment.
Source: CNN / Savanta ComRes
The dismantling of the statue of Edward Colston, a 17th century slave trader, in Bristol earlier this month was one of the most dramatic images to come out of Britain as the Black Lives Matter protests beamed from the United States to countries around the world after George Floyd was killed by police. in Minneapolis.
Long a source of local controversy, the monument - and others like it, from London to Oxford to Poole - has become the center of national debate.
CNN poll found blacks more than twice as likely as whites to say they are offended by statues of people involved in the slave trade or colonization: two-thirds (66%) of blacks said so, while only about one-third (30%) of whites did.
And blacks are about twice as likely as whites to support the removal of these statues, either by protesters or by the authorities. Six out of 10 blacks (60%) support their withdrawal by protesters, while just under three out of 10 whites (28%) do so. Support is gradually higher in both groups for the authorities removing the statues.
Even on the question of whether respondents understand why other people could be offended by such monuments, blacks are notably more likely to say that they show empathy: More than 8 in 10 (81%) Blacks said they understand why others would feel that way, compared to just under two-thirds (64%) of whites.
But the differences between the perceptions of whites and blacks of life in Britain go far beyond policing and the symbols of historic oppression.
It's there in film and television.
Blacks are twice as likely as whites to say that there is too little representation of blacks in the media: two-thirds (67%) of blacks indicate that, compared to a quarter (27%) of whites.
Source: CNN / Savanta ComRes
In examining this finding, almost half (44%) of whites said there was roughly the right representation of blacks in film and television. Only one in six Blacks (17%) agreed.
Blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to support the removal of streaming services from television programs using Blackface, as the BBC did this month with the comedy "Little Britain".
And blacks are three times more likely than whites to say that black celebrities are treated worse than their white counterparts by the media - a topic of frequent debate around Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, who is Métis.
Half (50%) of whites say that black celebrities are neither better nor worse treated by the media than whites, while only one in five blacks (21%) say so. About half (48%) of blacks say that black celebrities are treated worse than their white counterparts, compared to only 16% of whites.
Source: CNN / Savanta ComRes
Anti-racism activist Nova Reid said the CNN results show something that blacks have long known about perceptions of racism in Britain.
"We come from completely different starting points - we as blacks. We had racism on our doorstep. The kids didn't want to play with us because we look like excrement. It is part of the jargon and dialogue in our families. "
Well-intentioned white efforts to ignore race can actually make racism more difficult to combat, said Reid.
"Many of my white peers have learned 'not to see color'. This has the opposite effect. They become unsophisticated and unable to see discrimination, "she said.
She said British reluctance to talk about racism only made matters worse, citing the example of Doreen Lawrence, who has campaigned for racial justice since her teenage son Stephen was murdered by white youth in 1993.
Lawrence argued that race played a role in the Grenfell Tower fire in London three years ago, which killed 72 people. Blacks and other ethnic minorities suffered disproportionately in the high-rise fire.
"Baroness Lawrence spoke about Grenfell and the lack of results and the lack of change, and said that it was largely due to institutionalized racism" and was attacked for it, said Reid. "We have an unhealthy culture in the UK that calls racism more offensive than racism itself, but it tells the truth."
"We have an unhealthy culture in the UK that calls racism more offensive than racism itself."
Prime Minister Boris Johnson - who has openly used racial slurs himself - has repeatedly acknowledged in the past month that there is racism in Britain, and announced a new "intergovernmental commission last week "to examine racism and discrimination.
But he has been criticized for appointing his councilor Munira Mirza as its head, because she is known to have called institutional racism a myth.
And he came in for criticism in mid-June for saying, "What I really want to do as Prime Minister is change the narrative so that we stop the feeling of victimization and discrimination, that we eradicate it racism and that we start to have a real sense of expectation of success. "
Critics argue that he underestimates the problem, deviating more towards "narrative" and "feelings of victimization and discrimination". He is also criticized for having launched another commission and for not implementing the conclusions of previous reports and inquiries on racism and discrimination.
"The UK has a serious problem of institutional racism across the country. He is bleeding in every institution in this country, "said activist and activist Melz Owusu.
"Racism is not subtle either. It is rather a privilege not to be subject to it that makes it appear subtle. It is therefore a form of willful ignorance. We need to have a frank and open conversation about what racism really means in this country and only then can we deal with it effectively, "said Owusu, a doctoral student and founder of an initiative called Free Black University, which describes itself as "engaging the radical black imagination." "
Source: CNN / Savanta ComRes
Blacks interviewed by CNN were much more likely than whites to say that Johnson's ruling Conservative Party is institutionally racist, although a significant minority of whites agreed: 58% of blacks and 39% of whites said that the party was institutionally racist.
On the other hand, around a third of each group thinks that the opposition Labor Party is institutionally racist: 31% of blacks and 34% of whites have said so.
The Conservative Party did not respond to a request for comment. The Labor Party said it had "taken steps to restore confidence in the Labor Party on the issue of racism", including "a number of internal measures aimed at ensuring that the party embodies the values it defends ".
Black and white respondents have exactly opposite views as to whether they trust the British government not to repeat something like the Windrush scandal in 2018. People who came legally from the Commonwealth of Canada between 1948 and 1971 - and had no documents to show their right to stay - have been harassed and sometimes wrongfully imprisoned or deported, although they automatically have the right to stay in Britain.
Source: CNN / Savanta ComRes
More than half (55%) of white respondents said they had confidence in something like this would not happen again, while the same percentage of black respondents said no.
Blacks are almost twice as likely as whites to say that the UK has not done enough to combat historic racial injustice. Two in three blacks (64%) said so, compared to one in three whites (35%).
About a quarter (27%) of blacks said that the UK had done enough, while more than half (54%) of whites said so. By further accentuating the contrast, blacks are three times more likely than whites to say that the UK has "not done close enough" to tackle historic racial injustice: one-third (33%) of blacks l said, while only one in 10 (11%) whites did.
Activist Nova Reid has already seen anti-racist demonstrations start, burn and die out. She hopes this will not be the case this time.
"The momentum looks different," she said. "People are more confident to speak up and say that's what racism looks like. There are people who want to wake up and see the change. "
"The results are startling; it is often the case that blacks are considerably more dissatisfied with race relations in Britain than other ethnic minorities. "
Chris Hopkins, Savanta ComRes
"When things get back to normal, when we get out of the lockdown, it becomes easy for it to fall by the wayside. There are people who will fall back into checkbox exercises, "said Reid.
She hopes that this moment of fighting racism will lead to lasting change.
"It looks like it's mainstream," said Reid. "Human beings no longer tolerate it."
British institutions often combine blacks with other minority groups in a category called "BAME", for blacks, Asians and ethnic minorities.
CNN and Savanta ComRes found that responses from blacks tended to differ significantly from those of other ethnic groups in the survey.
"What is striking about these results is the difference of opinion between blacks compared to other ethnic minorities. Surveys often merge all BAME groups to give the impression of a cohesive opinion," said Chris Hopkins, Associate Director of Savanta ComRes.
"We felt it was important here to try to see what differences there were, if any, between the different ethnic minority groups," he said. "The results are startling; it is often the case that blacks are considerably more dissatisfied with race relations in Britain than other ethnic minorities and, although these views may be sharpened by the events of the past few weeks, this underscores the importance for statisticians and Survey designers try to avoid falling into the trap of assuming that all BAME groups feel the same when analyzing the results. "
Methodology
Savanta ComRes interviewed 1,535 British adults aged 18 and over about their opinions on race relations in the United Kingdom. The sample included a nationally representative sample of 1,000 respondents, with a boost to guarantee at least 500 black, Asian and ethnic minority respondents. The results were then weighted by age, gender, region and ethnicity to ensure that they are representative of the population of Great Britain as a whole. Northern Ireland was not included in the survey.
Everywhere, the term "Black" or "Black" refers to respondents who identified themselves as "Black" or "Mixed / African Black" or "Mixed / Caribbean Black".
The margin of error for the full sample is +/- 2.5 percentage points. On the white answers, it is +/- 3.1 points. On black, Asian and minority ethnic responses, it is +/- 4.3 points. On the black answers, it is +/- 8.2 points.
