Taken at face value
But in recent weeks, the polls reveal that Americans’ attitudes about the killing of Trayvon Martin have become starkly divided by race and by party politics.
Eight in 10 African-Americans say Martin’s killing was not justified, compared with just 38% of whites. Meanwhile, 56% of Republicans believe there has been “too much coverage” in the media, as opposed to 25% of Democrats. There are plenty of theories to explain this shift, but surely one driver is that Americans seem to have stopped talking about the case itself and unconsciously substituted for it their usual litany of social anxieties.
