Race in America
A selection of our stories
In May 2020 a police officer in Minneapolis murdered George Floyd, sparking a wave of protests across and beyond America. One year after his death, The Economist looked anew at the state of race relations in America, which is predicted to become majority non-white in less than 25 years. We published a series of articles, films, podcasts, data visualisations and guest contributions.
Latest features
Twelve months of protests
A year ago, George Floyd was murdered by a police officer. How has his death changed America?
1843 magazine | “I spent thousands on chemical straightening”: the price of having black hair in a white world
Tamara Gilkes Borr was six when she learned her hair wasn’t considered normal
1843 magazine | It was once a KKK stronghold. Last year BLM came to town
Vidor used to be called the most hate-filled town in Texas. Was it ready for America’s summer of racial reckoning in 2020?
How covid-19 exposes systemic racism in America
Black people there are twice as likely to die from covid-19 as white people
Economist Radio
Police reform, a year after George Floyd
Our daily podcast looks at America’s legislative efforts to make policing more accountable
19:54
Race in America
A year ago George Floyd’s murder gave rise to a movement to end racial disparities. How can that be done?
By Invitation
U. Renée Hall on how to support both Black and Blue
Departments must shed archaic habits and listen to the people they serve, writes Dallas’s former police chief
Jason Stanley on critical race theory and why it matters
Opponents caricature it to blunt calls for necessary structural changes to American institutions
John McWhorter on how critical race theory poorly serves its intended beneficiaries
To help black Americans, focus on policy, not making sure everyone uses your chosen phraseology
Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev explain why diversity training does not work
And suggest policies to combat bias in the workplace more effectively
William Darity and A. Kirsten Mullen on direct payments to close the racial-wealth gap
They are also morally necessary, and retire a debt 155 years overdue
Data
Assessing Minneapolis’s police a year after George Floyd’s death
African-Americans remain disproportionately likely to be stopped and have force used against them
Rioting amid demonstrations for racial justice may have helped Donald Trump
Joe Biden’s vote share in Kenosha, Wisconsin was conspicuously low
Over the past century, African-American life expectancy and education levels have soared
But racial gaps across these and other indicators remain wide
A year since the death of George Floyd, Americans remain gloomy about race relations
The murder conviction of the cop who killed him does not seem to have improved relations between the police and non-whites
Special report
America is becoming less racist but more divided by racism
How it confronts ethnic divisions matters to multiracial democracies everywhere
Millions of African-Americans remain stuck
They are poorer, less likely to own homes and more likely to be imprisoned than whites
White Americans are beginning to realise that they too belong to a race
Anxiety about their country’s demography is fuelling the politics of racial backlash
How to design anti-discrimination policies that actually work
Focus on actions, not feelings
Racial categorisation has grown more complex in America
But for race to become less significant, it may first need to matter more
Reparations alone will not heal America’s racial divides
And practical questions over how they would work remain formidable
From the archive
The power of protest and the legacy of George Floyd
Don’t waste a rich chance for social reform
George Floyd was killed on May 25th
The unarmed black man whose death has convulsed America was 46
How to fix American policing
The country’s forces kill too many of those they serve. Here is how to change that
The new ideology of race
And what is wrong with it
Segregation still blights the lives of African-Americans
There are policies that could improve things a lot
Bosses say they want to tackle racial injustice
American firms want to become more diverse