Ben Shapiro: Poll showing 56 percent saying American society is racist ‘shocking and devastating’

Ben Shapiro called a new poll showing 56 percent of voters saying American society overall is racist “shocking and devastating,” warning on Fox News that those who believe the country is inherently racist will advocate the “complete destruction of the system” from within.

“It’s shocking and devastating because it means one of two things,” the conservative commentator told Martha MacCallum on “The Story” Tuesday night.

“Either the majority of Americans believe that their family, friends and neighbors are actually racist … or they believe that the institutions of American society are so deeply corrupt and systematically racist that they have to be razed to the ground. The only solution if you believe that society, at this moment in 2020, is systematically racist or inherently racist is complete destruction of the system from within,” he said. 

The poll referenced by Shapiro came from The Wall Street Journal and NBC News. 

It also showed that those who agreed that American society is racist broke down decidedly along party lines, with 82 percent of Democrats saying they believed it, with just 30 percent of Republicans agreeing. The poll also showed a wide gap from a gender perspective, with 66 percent of women saying they believed American society is racist compared with 46 percent of men.

Shapiro warned of cultural pressures on commentators and the media in his remarks.

“I wonder how much of this is a certain amount of cultural pressure to cave to a particular narrative pushed by the media,” Shapiro said. “You’re not going to get called out or canceled if you say that you believe America is systemically racist and that you are all in favor of kneeling for the national anthem. You will get canceled if you say the opposite.