What The Hell America!

May 7, 2025

May 25 marks five years since George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was killed by a White police officer in Minneapolis. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was found guilty on charges of murder and manslaughter and sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.

Floyd’s murder, just months after the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, sparked nationwide protests. Millions of Americans marched in communities across the country, drawing attention to issues of racial inequality, including the treatment of Black people by police.

In June 2020, more than eight-in-ten U.S. adults said they were following news about the demonstrations “very” (42%) or “fairly” closely (42%). This was similar to the high level of attention Americans had been paying to news about COVID-19.  

The Black Lives Matter movement, which first rose to prominence in 2013 following George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, reached a high point in favorability during the 2020 protests, with 67% of U.S. adults expressing support. And a Pew Research Center analysis shows that use of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag peaked following Floyd’s killing.

Some called the summer of 2020 a time of racial reckoning in America. But in the years since, Americans have expressed growing skepticism that the events of 2020 produced significant change.

In September 2020, 52% of U.S. adults said the increased focus on issues of race and racial inequality would lead to changes that would improve the lives of Black people; 46% said it would not.

Five years later, 72% say the increased focus on race and racial inequality after Floyd’s killing did not lead to changes that improved the lives of Black people.

The share of Americans who express support for the Black Lives Matter movement stands at 52% today, a drop of 15 percentage points compared with June 2020.

Commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has also declined. Companies have pulled back on DEI initiatives, and workers’ views of them have grown more negative. This was the case even before President Donald Trump signed an executive order eliminating DEI policies in the federal government and urging the private sector to do the same.

More broadly, some Americans have grown more pessimistic that Black people will eventually have equal rights with White people. Among those who say the country hasn’t made enough progress on racial equality, 49% express doubt that Black people will ever have equal rights with White people, up from 39% in 2020.

In this data essay, we’ll look back at how Americans were thinking about race, racial inequality and policing in the weeks and months following George Floyd’s killing. We’ll also explore how views about these issues have changed in the last five years and Americans’ expectations for the future.

How Americans’ views of police conduct have changed

Views of police conduct turned more negative in the weeks following George Floyd’s death.

In June 2020, most U.S. adults said police around the country were doing an only fair or poor job of:

• Holding officers accountable for misconduct (69%)
• Treating racial and ethnic groups equally (65%)
• Using the right amount of force for each situation (64%)

Each of these shares was at least 10 percentage points higher than it had been in 2016.

By 2023, views had become more positive, though fewer than half said police were doing an excellent or good job in each of these areas.

Views of police have consistently varied by party and by race and ethnicity. Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents have more negative views than Republicans and Republican leaners, and Black adults have more negative views than White and Hispanic adults. (The number of Asian adults in the sample was too small to analyze separately.)

The impact of viral videos of police violence

In 2023, nearly nine-in-ten Americans said they had personally seen videos of police violence against Black people.

Views of the impact of these videos were mixed. 

• 45% of U.S. adults said the wide sharing of these videos in the news or on social media is a very or somewhat good thing.
• 63% said these videos make it a lot or somewhat easier to hold police officers accountable.
• 54% said they make it a lot or somewhat harder for police officers to do their jobs.

Black adults (65%) and Democrats (68%) were the most likely to say these videos being widely shared is a good thing.

There were also wide partisan differences in the shares saying these videos make it easier to hold police officers accountable (76% of Democrats vs. 50% of Republicans).

When it comes to the impact on police officers’ ability to do their job, 64% of White adults and 74% of Republicans said these videos make it harder. Fewer than half among other groups said the same.

How the relationship between Black people and police has changed since Floyd’s murder

Five years after George Floyd’s death, we asked Americans how they see the relationship between police and Black people in the United States.

More than half of U.S. adults (54%) say things are about the same as before Floyd was killed. A third say things are now worse, while just 11% say things are better.

Views differ by party. About four-in-ten Republicans (39%) say the relationship between police and Black people is now worse, compared with 28% of Democrats. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say things are about the same as they were before Floyd’s killing (59% vs. 49%).

Notably, these views don’t vary much by race and ethnicity.

The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and views of the Black Lives Matter movement

George Floyd’s killing sparked activism on social media on issues of race and racial equality. Social media activity using the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag skyrocketed in the summer of 2020, with over 1.2 million public tweets posted on a single day in June 2020, according to our analysis of publicly available tweets from July 2013 through March 2023. Nearly 10 million distinct users tweeted the hashtag in the five months from May to September 2020.

How support for the Black Lives Matter movement has changed

Public support for the Black Lives Matter movement also reached a high mark in June 2020, when 67% of U.S. adults expressed support, according to our surveys.

However, support quickly dropped. In September 2020, 55% of Americans said they supported the Black Lives Matter movement, a 12 percentage point decrease from a few months prior. And support had declined again by 2023, when about half of Americans said they supported the movement (51%).

Today, support seems to have leveled off. Some 52% of Americans say they strongly or somewhat support the movement, and 45% say they oppose it.  

Over the years, support for the Black Lives Matter movement has remained high among Black adults, Democrats and young adults. That continues to be the case today, with majorities of these groups expressing support:

• 76% of Black adults vs. 61% each among Hispanic and Asian adults and 45% of White adults
• 84% of Democrats vs. 22% of Republicans
• 61% of 18- to 29-year-olds vs. 54% of 30- to 49-year-olds and 47% of those 50 and older

While about half of U.S. adults express support for the Black Lives Matter movement, a smaller share (32%) say the movement has been extremely or very effective at bringing attention to racism against Black people. About half of Black adults (48%) and 46% of Asian adults say the movement has been highly effective. This compares with 33% of Hispanic adults and 27% of White adults.

From 2022: Black Lives Matter tops list of groups that Black Americans see as helping them the most in recent years

How Americans see the impact of 2020 protests

In 2020, most Americans (77%) believed the increased focus on issues of race and racial inequality represented a change in the way most Americans thought about these issues. While some groups were more likely than others to say this, majorities across all racial and ethnic groups and political parties agreed.

Five years later, most U.S. adults (70%) still say the attention to racial inequality after George Floyd’s murder represented a change in the way most Americans think about the issue. But the share saying it represented a major change dropped from 34% in 2020 to 24% today.

There’s also been a shift in how Americans see the impact the attention on race and racial inequality in summer 2020 has had on the lives of Black people.

In September 2020, 52% thought the increased attention to these issues would lead to changes that would improve the lives of Black people. By 2023, 40% said that had happened. That figure stands at just 27% today. About seven-in-ten (72%) now say the increased focus on these issues after Floyd’s murder did not lead to changes that improved the lives of Black people.

Democrats have become especially skeptical of the impact the increased focus on race and racial inequality has had on the lives of Black people. 

About a third of Democrats and those who lean Democratic (34%) now say the focus on these issues after Floyd’s murder led to changes that improved the lives of Black people – roughly half the share (70%) who thought this would happen in September 2020. The change has been more modest among Republicans and Republican leaners (21% today vs. 31% in 2020).

Americans across racial and ethnic groups are now less likely than they were in 2020 to say the increased focus on race and racial inequality after Floyd’s murder led to changes that improved the lives of Black people. As was the case then, today’s answers vary little by race and ethnicity, if at all.

Attention to issues of race today

Attention from companies and organizations

After George Floyd’s killing, individuals weren’t the only ones paying attention to issues of race – companies were also engaging in the conversation.

Many companies publicly denounced racism following the protests. And their statements were noticed by the public: 80% of U.S. adults said in July 2020 that they had seen or heard companies and organizations making statements about these issues in the months prior to the survey. 

A majority of Americans who said they had seen or heard public statements about race or racial inequality (69%) said pressure from others to address the issue was a driving reason for companies’ actions. A much smaller share (19%) said genuine concerns about the treatment of Black people in the country were a large reason for these statements.  

Overall, Americans were split about how important it was for companies to make statements about politics or social issues: 52% thought this was very or somewhat important, and 48% said it was not too or not at all important. 

Today, these shares remain similar, with Americans split down the middle (50% each) on whether or not this is important for companies to do.

Broader attention to issues of race

Views of how much attention is paid to issues of race in our country overall are also virtually unchanged from five years ago. About four-in-ten Americans (41%) say there is too much attention paid to these issues, while 35% say there’s too little attention and 23% say it’s about right.

Black adults continue to be the most likely to say there is too little attention paid to issues of race (69% of Black adults say this, compared with fewer than half among other racial and ethnic groups).

And White adults continue to be the most likely to say there is too much attention paid to race and racial issues (49% of White adults say this).

There are even wider gaps by party:

• 56% of Democrats say there’s too little attention paid to these issues, compared with 12% of Republicans.
• 66% of Republicans say there’s too much attention on these issues, compared with 17% of Democrats.

How Americans are feeling about issues of race

Half of U.S. adults say they feel exhausted extremely or very often when thinking about the state of race and racial issues in the U.S. today. This is larger than the shares who say they often experience other feelings we asked about. Over half of Democrats (54%) and 48% of Republicans say they feel exhausted when they think about these issues.

There are larger differences by party when it comes to some other feelings. By 10 percentage points or more, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they extremely or very often feel:

• Angry (47% vs. 19%)
• Fearful (39% vs. 13%)

In turn, by double-digit margins, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say they frequently feel each of the following when they think about the state of race in the U.S. these days:

• Uninterested (39% vs. 15%)
• Hopeful (22% vs. 12%)
• Satisfied (15% vs. 5%)

Views of racial inequality

While some thought of the summer of 2020 as a time of racial reckoning, views about the state of racial equality in America changed only slightly between 2019 and 2020.

In September 2020, 49% of Americans said the country hadn’t gone far enough on racial equality for Black people, up from 45% in 2019. Today, that figure stands at 43%.

As was true in 2019 and 2020, views on the country’s progress on racial equality still vary by race and by political party:

• 82% of Black Americans say the nation has not gone far enough when it comes to Black people having equal rights with White people. About half or fewer among White, Hispanic and Asian Americans say this.
• 71% of Democrats and Democratic leaners say the country hasn’t gone far enough, compared with just 14% of Republicans and Republican leaners.

Among those who say the country hasn’t gone far enough, many cited Donald Trump or specific ways in which Black people are treated unfairly when asked about this in an open-ended question. Open-ended responses have been lightly edited for spelling, punctuation and style.

Among those who think the country has gone too far, many say there is too much emphasis on race in the country these days. Some cite affirmative action or diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the workplace when asked in what ways they think the country has gone too far. 

The future of racial equality

In recent years, Americans have become less optimistic about the future of racial equality for Black people. Among those who say the U.S. still has work to do in this area, 51% now say it is very or somewhat likely that Black people will eventually have equal rights with White people. This is down from 60% in September 2020.

As was the case five years ago, most White adults (61%) who say the country still has work to do say it’s likely that Black people will eventually have equal rights with White people. This is much larger than the shares of Black (32%), Hispanic (50%) and Asian adults (41%) who say the same.

Two-thirds of Black adults who think the country hasn’t made enough progress on racial equality say that eventual equality with White people is not too or not at all likely. About six-in-ten Asian adults (59%) and 49% of Hispanic adults say the same.

Trump’s handling of racial issues

When asked about their expectations for Donald Trump’s handling of issues related to race in his second term, more say the president will make things worse (48%) than say he will make things better (28%). About a quarter (24%) say Trump won’t make much difference on these issues.

Expectations of Trump’s handling of issues related to race differ widely by party:

• 82% of Democrats – but just 14% of Republicans – think he’ll make things worse.
• 53% of Republicans say Trump will make things better, compared with just 5% of Democrats.

About this project 

Pew Research Center compiled this data to explore how Americans’ views about race, racial inequality and policing have changed in the five years since George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was killed by Derek Chauvin, a White police officer, in Minneapolis. Floyd’s murder sparked nationwide protests in the summer of 2020, drawing attention to issues of race and racial inequality. 

This essay draws mostly on surveys conducted in the weeks, months and years following Floyd’s killing. These surveys are part of our long-standing body of work on race and ethnicity, which includes research on the public’s attitudes about race and illuminates the breadth of experiences of and within different racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. 

Methodological note

In this essay, findings for 2025 come from a Pew Research Center survey of 5,097 adults conducted Feb. 10-17, 2025. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. Interviews were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other factors. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.

Here are the questions from the 2025 survey used for this essay, the topline and the survey methodology. The methodology and toplines for surveys conducted before 2025 can be found in the links to previous publications throughout this essay.

Acknowledgments

This essay is a collaborative effort based on the input and analysis of the following individuals. Find related reports online at https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/race-ethnicity.

Mark Hugo Lopez, Director of Race and Ethnicity Research
Kim Parker, Director of Social Trends Research
Juliana Horowitz, Senior Associate Director, Research
Sahana Mukherjee, Associate Director, Research
Kiana Cox, Senior Researcher                    
Khadijah Edwards, Research Associate
Kiley Hurst, Research Analyst             
Alexandra Cahn, Research Assistant
Gracie Martinez, Research Assistant
Eugenie Park, Research Assistant
Reem Nadeem, Digital Producer        
John Carlo Mandapat, Information Graphics Designer     
David Kent, Senior Copy Editor
Jens Manuel Krogstad, Senior Writer/Editor                            
Tanya Arditi, Senior Communications Manager

Editorial guidance on the essay was provided by Monica Anderson, Director, Internet and Technology Research; Jocelyn Kiley, Director, Politics Research; Rachel Drian, Associate Director, Communications; John Gramlich, Associate Director, Short Reads; and Michael Dimock, President.

In addition, the project benefited greatly from the guidance of the Pew Research Center methodology team: Courtney Kennedy, Andrew Mercer, Ashley Amaya, Dorene Asare-Marfo, Dana Popky, Anna Brown, Arnold Lau and Thomas May.