Big Racial Divide over Zimmerman Verdict 
 
 Whites Say Too Much Focus on Race, Blacks Disagree 
 
 Overview 
 
 The public is divided over the not guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial and over the conversation about race that has surrounded it. The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted July 17-21 among 1,480 adults nationwide finds roughly as many satisfied with the verdict in the case (39%) as dissatisfied (42%), with nearly one-in-five (19%) offering no opinion. 
 
 More broadly, 52% say race is getting more attention in this case than it deserves, while 36% say the case raises important issues about race that need to be discussed. 
 
 African Americans express a clear and strong reaction to the case and its meaning: By an 86% to 5% margin, blacks are dissatisfied with Zimmerman’s acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin. And nearly eight-in-ten blacks (78%) s ay the case raises important issues about race that need to be discussed. Among whites, more are satisfied (49%) than dissatisfied (30%) with the outcome of the Zimmerman trial. Just 28% of whites say the case raises important issues about race, while twice as many (60%) say the issue of race is getting more attention than it deserves. 
 
 Not only do reactions to the outcome of the case vary widely across racial lines, but overall interest levels also are very different. When asked, in a separate survey, what recent news story they are talking about with friends and family, 63% of blacks volunteer the Zimmerman trial compared with 42% of whites. Nearly six-in-ten African Americans (58%) say they followed news about the verdict and reactions to the case very closely compared with 34% of whites. 
 
 Young Less Satisfied with Outcome 
 
 Younger Americans express far more dissatisfaction over the Zimmerman trial verdict than do older Americans. Among those under 30, 53% say they are dissatisfied with t he verdict and just 29% are satisfied. The balance of opinion is the reverse among those ages 65 and older: 50% are satisfied and just 33% dissatisfied. (See the table at the end of this report for a detailed look at opinions about the Zimmerman verdict.) 
 
 To be sure, some of this reflects the higher share of minorities among younger age groups. But there are sizable age differences in whites’ reactions to the verdict. Among whites younger than 30, as many are satisfied (39%) as dissatisfied (41%) with the Zimmerman verdict. Among whites 50 and older, majorities are satisfied with the verdict (57% of those 50-64, 56% of those 65 and older). 
 
 Verdict Divides along Partisan Lines 
 
 Reactions to the Zimmerman verdict are deeply split along partisan lines. A majority of Republicans (61%) express satisfaction with the verdict, compared with 42% of independents and just 22% of Democrats. 
 
 Partisan differences are nearly as stark among whites: White Republicans are about twice as likely as white Democrats to be satisfied with the verdict (65% vs. 30%). 
 
 Tea Party Republicans have an especially positive reaction to the verdict in Zimmerman’s trial. Fully 80% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who agree with the Tea Party are satisfied with the verdict, compared with 51% of Republicans and leaners who do not agree with the Tea Party. 
 
 W hile most white Democrats are unhappy with the verdict, dissatisfaction with the outcome is much broader among black Democrats (91% dissatisfied) than among white Democrats (56% dissatisfied). 
 
 There also are gender differences in opinions about the Zimmerman verdict. More men are satisfied (44%) than dissatisfied (36%) with the trial’s outcome while women, on balance, are more dissatisfied (48% dissatisfied vs. 35% satisfied). These differences are evident even when the respondent’s race is taken into account. 
 
 Most Whites Say Too Much Attention on Race 
 
 About half (52%) of Americans say the issue of race is getting too much attention in this case, while 36% say the case raises important issues about race that need to be discussed. Roughly three-quarters (78%) of blacks say a discussion of race is important, compared with 47% of Hispanics and just 28% of whites. (See the table at the end of this report for a detailed look at opinions about whether the case raises important issue about race that need to be discussed). 
 
 There is a substantial gender divide in views of race and the Zimmerman case. By nearly two-to-one (57%-29%) men say the issue of race is getting too much attention. But women are evenly divided: 43% say the case raises important issues about race that need to be discussed, while 46% say race is getting too much attention. 
 
 Most Democrats (62%) say race is an important issue in the case that should be discussed. This is also the view of a smaller majority (53%) of white Democrats. Just 18% of Republicans say the case raises important issues about race that merit further discussion while 68% say the issue of race is getting more attention than it deserves. 

 George Zimmerman during his trial in Sanford, Fla., on July 12. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP) 
 
 African Americans have a mostly shared and sharply negative reaction to the shooting of Trayvon Martin and the not-guilty verdict in the resulting trial, while whites are far more divided, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. 
 
 At least eight in 10 African Americans say the shooting of the Florida teenager was unjustified, recoil at the verdict in the trial and want the shooter, George Zimmerman, tried in federal court for violating Martin's civil rights. 
 
 On the Martin shooting in particular, the racial gaps are extremely wide. 
 
 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. 
 
 About eight in 10 African Americans (81 percent) say the federal government should charge Zimmerman in federal court with civil rights violations. Just 27 percent of whites agree, while 59 percent say the government should not bring such charges. 
 
 Some 60 percent of Hispanics say blacks and other minorities do not receive equal treatment with whites in the criminal justice system, and by a two-to-one ratio, they disapprove of the verdict in the Zimmerman trial. 
 
 The Post-ABC poll was conducted July 18 to 21 among a random national sample of 1,002 adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points; it is 4.5 points for the sample of white respondents and 11 points among African Americans and Hispanics. 
 
 Cohen is Director of Capital Insight, the independent polling group of Washington Post Media. Capital Insight pollsters Scott Clement and Kimberly N. Hines contributed to this report. 
 
 RELATED: Celebrities who have protested the Zimmerman verdict 
 
 Graphic: Trayvon Martin shooting and verdict: Huge racial gaps
– Two new polls find America is divided racially and politically over the outcome of the Zimmerman trial. Both a Washington Post-ABC News poll (of 1,002 people) and a Pew Research poll (of 1,480) found 86% of black respondents were unhappy with the verdict, compared with 31% of whites in the former poll and 30% in the latter. In the Post-ABC poll, 87% of African Americans believed the shooting was not justified, versus 33% of white Americans. The two groups were also divided over whether the issue of race was too much of a focus in the discourse around the case—the Pew poll found 78% of blacks said it raised "important issues about race that need to be discussed," while 60% of whites thought race received too much attention. The political divide was less stark, but still significant—65% of Republicans in the Post-ABC poll and 61% in the Pew poll were satisfied with the verdict, while 62% and 68% of Democrats disapproved, respectively. The Pew poll also found 80% of Tea Party supporters were satisfied with the verdict.