A Quinnpiac University poll released Thursday found most American voters believe that National Football League players who kneel in protest during the national anthem are not unpatriotic.
Nearly 60 percent of the respondents said the kneeling players were not unpatriotic compared to 35 percent who felt they were.
The divide is even more stark among Republican voters. Seventy percent believe they are not patriotic, while nearly one-quarter said they were.
White voters without a college degree are evenly divided on the issue. Respondents listed by age, education level, gender, political party affiliation and race generally agree kneeling players are not unpatriotic.
More than half of those surveyed said professional athletes in general have the right to protest on the venues they perform on, compared to 43 percent who felt they did not.
But when race was taken into consideration, the poll shows wide divisions on whether athletes can rightfully protest on the field or on the court. By a nearly 8-to-1 margin, African-American voters said they had the right, while Latino voters said they did by more than 2-to-1. Fifty-three percent of white voters said they did not have the right, compared to nearly 45 percent who said they did.
Just over half of American voters support the new NFL policy requiring players to stand for the anthem, while 42 percent do not.
