essay about racial justice

Black people are still seeking racial justice – why and what to do about it

Subscribe to how we rise, kwadwo frimpong kwadwo frimpong research associate.

November 12, 2020

On July 9 th 2020, in the wake of nation-wide protests over George Floyd and other Black victims of police violence, David M. Rubenstein Fellow in Governance Studies Rashawn Ray joined actor and producer Boris Kodjoe to talk about policy solutions to address systemic racism and police brutality. Below are highlights from their conversation for the Instagram podcast series #19for20 , which aims to inspire public dialogue about difficult topics in social justice. You can watch the full interview here .

What is different about today’s climate compared to prior national uprisings around race?

Ray highlighted how both the visceral public display of George Floyd’s murder and COVID-19 had engulfed the nation in a manner markedly distinct from Ferguson, Black Lives Matter (BLM) and other previous nation-wide racial justice movements.

“George Floyd is the twenty first century Emmett Till, a moment similar to [his] murder in 1955 [and] by his mother having the foresight and also the bravery to show his decomposed body in that casket”, he said.

The gruesome imagery of witnessing another human being lose their life , with their neck buried under the knee of a police officer for roughly 8 minutes and 46 seconds languishes us psychologically, emotionally and physically. At the same time, with the globe and mainstream media gripped in the sweeping standstill of the pandemic, BLM took to social media, unleashing raw footage of Floyd and other Black victims to signify that they were not isolated, but were the remnants of a larger scourge of racially charged police violence rippling across the country.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCcTIIUIu1K/?igshid=ri56lt8dfddf

Why do Black Lives continue to be devalued and over-criminalized?

Ray remarked on how the nation’s historical legacy of slavery continues to be the foundational epicenter of racial discrimination against Blacks and other minorities. “Bad apples often times come from a rotten tree. And that tree in the United States of America is rooted in systemic racism, particularly when it comes to law enforcement that has roots back to slavery”, he explained. What’s more, according to recent research , disturbing levels of white nationalism and domestic extremist groups have been shown to have infiltrated law enforcement.

Kodjoe described a personal encounter he had had with a white businessman in his own neighborhood while dressed in a hoodie and flip flops to illustrate what he referred to as “ the magic pause ”: how Black individuals continually internalize and deflect a series of micro-aggressions and discriminatory behavior from white individuals. The man was initially disdainful towards Kodjoe but after noticing that he owned one of the most opulent houses in the community, he sharply reversed his tone, adopting a more friendly and positive demeanor. “And that criminalization of Black people is the direct result of the lack of those muscles and the lack of consideration for the fact that I’m a father, I’m a husband, I’m a professional, I have family, I have a job,” Kodjoe emphasized.

Ray concurred, remarking that “ the magic pause ” also reflects the collective memory of traumatic experiences that Blacks have undergone in the past, triggering fresh waves of encounters that either did or could have ended fatally, but also revealing how a white person will attempt to code-switch according to the perceived social class of a Black person. “And I think fundamentally it highlights that we can’t outclass racism. It doesn’t matter if you’re Boris Kodjoe [and] that you have the biggest house on the street….all that matters is that in that moment, he’s seen your skin tone and his skin tone, [which gives] him the script for how to make sense of what was going on,” he added.  In essence, these racial attitudes undergird and perpetuate the over-policing and dehumanization of Black people and the long-standing perceptions that they are not only one-dimensional but are more likely to engage in crime. Conversely, crime is inherently racial but there is a tendency to zero in on Black related violence. “ 94% of Black people kill other Blacks, 86% of white people kill other whites. But we never say white-on-white crime. It’s only talking about Black-on-Black crime,” Ray underscored.

What remedies can help shape the path forward?  

1.  Re-allocate and re-invest in police departments

Simply assigning more police officers to these crises will not solve the underlying issues. Further, not only is crime hovering at historic lows but existing law enforcement funds are not being utilized efficiently: Roughly 40% of homicides and 70% of robberies go unresolved and  9 out of 10 response calls handled by law enforcement stem from non-violent issues, ranging from mental health to homelessness. Defunding the police or re-assigning non-violent crimes to entities better equipped to handle these societal challenges will help to boost efficiency and augment the clearance rate for resolving violent crimes.

2.  Implement accountability & transparency in law enforcement

Not only does the status quo reward police officers who ratchet up the highest quotas of tickets and arrests but taxpayers routinely foot the bill for civil payouts involving victims of police brutality and even then, the culpable officers are rarely held financially or criminally liable.

• Institute police department liability insurance: By shifting the source of funds for civilian payouts from taxpayers to police budgets , police departments will not only have a greater incentive to hold police officers accountable for misconduct but the aggrieved families will receive more just recompense for the loss of their loved ones, through the parties that are directly responsible as opposed to through their own hard-earned tax dollars.
• Create a national registry : This will allow police officers to be terminated for misconduct or if they resigned under trial for misconduct as outlined in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act .
• Remove qualified immunity : This is a legal safeguard currently upheld by the Supreme Court which shields police officers from criminal liability and being sued financially, however, recently enacted state led reforms such as in Colorado can serve as a promising model.

3.  Active civic engagement, particularly down ballot

Activism across the electoral spectrum is paramount but local politics largely determines the policies and outcomes within one’s immediate community. Rallying and electing local officials such as state representatives and attorney generals who can impact the judicial system can yield concrete pathways towards significant results.

4.  Corporate America needs to embrace meaningful action, not just slogans and words

Black assets and intellectual property have been systematically disenfranchised and under-invested in and members of the C-suite and other large conglomerates have a significant role to play in not only reshaping the narrative and incentive structure around business but by also leveraging the existing resources within the Black community to drive sustainable and meaningful change. ”[We] don’t need handouts, we need real partnerships and corporate allies that are ready to invest in us,” Kodjoe reiterated.

• Invest in minority-owned small businesses . Roughly 40% of black small businesses went under because 90% didn’t receive relief funds, however, large corporates can leverage their existing sub-contracts to combat this area.
• Diversity upper management; there is a rich pool of untapped talent to be capitalized upon.
• Compensate individuals for doing the emotional work of anti-racism; they are not there to do it for free.
• Institute bi-annual surveys for minorities to capture their experiences in the workplace and promote greater equity.
• Implement reparations to close the racial wealth gap.

In essence, Black people don’t want a seat at the table, they want their own table, apportioned with equal weight and size to be acknowledged, seen, and heard across all spectrums of society. W.E.B Dubois encapsulated this enduring plight of Black individuals over a century ago as “ double consciousness ”, a longing to be both Black and American without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in one’s face. And yet Blacks are still clamoring for that promise of equal justice and opportunity to be recognized as fully equal citizens in America.

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A pandemic that disproportionately affected communities of color, roadblocks that obstructed efforts to expand the franchise and protect voting discrimination, a growing movement to push anti-racist curricula out of schools – events over the past year have only underscored how prevalent systemic racism and bias is in America today.

What can be done to dismantle centuries of discrimination in the U.S.? How can a more equitable society be achieved? What makes racism such a complicated problem to solve? Black History Month is a time marked for honoring and reflecting on the experience of Black Americans, and it is also an opportunity to reexamine our nation’s deeply embedded racial problems and the possible solutions that could help build a more equitable society.

Stanford scholars are tackling these issues head-on in their research from the perspectives of history, education, law and other disciplines. For example, historian Clayborne Carson is working to preserve and promote the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and religious studies scholar Lerone A. Martin has joined Stanford to continue expanding access and opportunities to learn from King’s teachings; sociologist Matthew Clair is examining how the criminal justice system can end a vicious cycle involving the disparate treatment of Black men; and education scholar Subini Ancy Annamma is studying ways to make education more equitable for historically marginalized students.

Learn more about these efforts and other projects examining racism and discrimination in areas like health and medicine, technology and the workplace below.

Update: Jan. 27, 2023: This story was originally published on Feb. 16, 2021, and has been updated on a number of occasions to include new content.

Understanding the impact of racism; advancing justice

One of the hardest elements of advancing racial justice is helping everyone understand the ways in which they are involved in a system or structure that perpetuates racism, according to Stanford legal scholar Ralph Richard Banks.

“The starting point for the center is the recognition that racial inequality and division have long been the fault line of American society. Thus, addressing racial inequity is essential to sustaining our nation, and furthering its democratic aspirations,” said Banks , the Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and co-founder of the Stanford Center for Racial Justice .

This sentiment was echoed by Stanford researcher Rebecca Hetey . One of the obstacles in solving inequality is people’s attitudes towards it, Hetey said. “One of the barriers of reducing inequality is how some people justify and rationalize it.”

How people talk about race and stereotypes matters. Here is some of that scholarship.

For Black Americans, COVID-19 is quickly reversing crucial economic gains

Research co-authored by SIEPR’s Peter Klenow and Chad Jones measures the welfare gap between Black and white Americans and provides a way to analyze policies to narrow the divide.

How an ‘impact mindset’ unites activists of different races

A new study finds that people’s involvement with Black Lives Matter stems from an impulse that goes beyond identity.

For democracy to work, racial inequalities must be addressed

The Stanford Center for Racial Justice is taking a hard look at the policies perpetuating systemic racism in America today and asking how we can imagine a more equitable society.

The psychological toll of George Floyd’s murder

As the nation mourned the death of George Floyd, more Black Americans than white Americans felt angry or sad – a finding that reveals the racial disparities of grief.

Seven factors contributing to American racism

Of the seven factors the researchers identified, perhaps the most insidious is passivism or passive racism, which includes an apathy toward systems of racial advantage or denial that those systems even exist.

Scholars reflect on Black history

Humanities and social sciences scholars reflect on “Black history as American history” and its impact on their personal and professional lives.

The history of Black History Month

It's February, so many teachers and schools are taking time to celebrate Black History Month. According to Stanford historian Michael Hines, there are still misunderstandings and misconceptions about the past, present, and future of the celebration.

Numbers about inequality don’t speak for themselves

In a new research paper, Stanford scholars Rebecca Hetey and Jennifer Eberhardt propose new ways to talk about racial disparities that exist across society, from education to health care and criminal justice systems.

Changing how people perceive problems

Drawing on an extensive body of research, Stanford psychologist Gregory Walton lays out a roadmap to positively influence the way people think about themselves and the world around them. These changes could improve society, too.

Welfare opposition linked to threats of racial standing

Research co-authored by sociologist Robb Willer finds that when white Americans perceive threats to their status as the dominant demographic group, their resentment of minorities increases. This resentment leads to opposing welfare programs they believe will mainly benefit minority groups.

Conversations about race between Black and white friends can feel risky, but are valuable

New research about how friends approach talking about their race-related experiences with each other reveals concerns but also the potential that these conversations have to strengthen relationships and further intergroup learning.

Defusing racial bias

Research shows why understanding the source of discrimination matters.

Many white parents aren’t having ‘the talk’ about race with their kids

After George Floyd’s murder, Black parents talked about race and racism with their kids more. White parents did not and were more likely to give their kids colorblind messages.

Stereotyping makes people more likely to act badly

Even slight cues, like reading a negative stereotype about your race or gender, can have an impact.

Why white people downplay their individual racial privileges

Research shows that white Americans, when faced with evidence of racial privilege, deny that they have benefited personally.

Clayborne Carson: Looking back at a legacy

Stanford historian Clayborne Carson reflects on a career dedicated to studying and preserving the legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

How race influences, amplifies backlash against outspoken women

When women break gender norms, the most negative reactions may come from people of the same race.

Examining disparities in education

Scholar Subini Ancy Annamma is studying ways to make education more equitable for historically marginalized students. Annamma’s research examines how schools contribute to the criminalization of Black youths by creating a culture of punishment that penalizes Black children more harshly than their white peers for the same behavior. Her work shows that youth of color are more likely to be closely watched, over-represented in special education, and reported to and arrested by police.

“These are all ways in which schools criminalize Black youth,” she said. “Day after day, these things start to sediment.”

That’s why Annamma has identified opportunities for teachers and administrators to intervene in these unfair practices. Below is some of that research, from Annamma and others.

New ‘Segregation Index’ shows American schools remain highly segregated by race, ethnicity, and economic status

Researchers at Stanford and USC developed a new tool to track neighborhood and school segregation in the U.S.

New evidence shows that school poverty shapes racial achievement gaps

Racial segregation leads to growing achievement gaps – but it does so entirely through differences in school poverty, according to new research from education Professor Sean Reardon, who is launching a new tool to help educators, parents and policymakers examine education trends by race and poverty level nationwide.

School closures intensify gentrification in Black neighborhoods nationwide

An analysis of census and school closure data finds that shuttering schools increases gentrification – but only in predominantly Black communities.

Ninth-grade ethnic studies helped students for years, Stanford researchers find

A new study shows that students assigned to an ethnic studies course had longer-term improvements in attendance and graduation rates.

Teaching about racism

Stanford sociologist Matthew Snipp discusses ways to educate students about race and ethnic relations in America.

Stanford scholar uncovers an early activist’s fight to get Black history into schools

In a new book, Assistant Professor Michael Hines chronicles the efforts of a Chicago schoolteacher in the 1930s who wanted to remedy the portrayal of Black history in textbooks of the time.

How disability intersects with race

Professor Alfredo J. Artiles discusses the complexities in creating inclusive policies for students with disabilities.

Access to program for black male students lowered dropout rates

New research led by Stanford education professor Thomas S. Dee provides the first evidence of effectiveness for a district-wide initiative targeted at black male high school students.

How school systems make criminals of Black youth

Stanford education professor Subini Ancy Annamma talks about the role schools play in creating a culture of punishment against Black students.

Reducing racial disparities in school discipline

Stanford psychologists find that brief exercises early in middle school can improve students’ relationships with their teachers, increase their sense of belonging and reduce teachers’ reports of discipline issues among black and Latino boys.

Science lessons through a different lens

In his new book, Science in the City, Stanford education professor Bryan A. Brown helps bridge the gap between students’ culture and the science classroom.

Teachers more likely to label black students as troublemakers, Stanford research shows

Stanford psychologists Jennifer Eberhardt and Jason Okonofua experimentally examined the psychological processes involved when teachers discipline black students more harshly than white students.

Why we need Black teachers

Travis Bristol, MA '04, talks about what it takes for schools to hire and retain teachers of color.

Understanding racism in the criminal justice system

Research has shown that time and time again, inequality is embedded into all facets of the criminal justice system. From being arrested to being charged, convicted and sentenced, people of color – particularly Black men – are disproportionately targeted by the police.

“So many reforms are needed: police accountability, judicial intervention, reducing prosecutorial power and increasing resources for public defenders are places we can start,” said sociologist Matthew Clair . “But beyond piecemeal reforms, we need to continue having critical conversations about transformation and the role of the courts in bringing about the abolition of police and prisons.”

Clair is one of several Stanford scholars who have examined the intersection of race and the criminal process and offered solutions to end the vicious cycle of racism. Here is some of that work.

Police Facebook posts disproportionately highlight crimes involving Black suspects, study finds

Researchers examined crime-related posts from 14,000 Facebook pages maintained by U.S. law enforcement agencies and found that Facebook users are exposed to posts that overrepresent Black suspects by 25% relative to local arrest rates.

Supporting students involved in the justice system

New data show that a one-page letter asking a teacher to support a youth as they navigate the difficult transition from juvenile detention back to school can reduce the likelihood that the student re-offends.

Race and mass criminalization in the U.S.

Stanford sociologist discusses how race and class inequalities are embedded in the American criminal legal system.

New Stanford research lab explores incarcerated students’ educational paths

Associate Professor Subini Annamma examines the policies and practices that push marginalized students out of school and into prisons.

Derek Chauvin verdict important, but much remains to be done

Stanford scholars Hakeem Jefferson, Robert Weisberg and Matthew Clair weigh in on the Derek Chauvin verdict, emphasizing that while the outcome is important, much work remains to be done to bring about long-lasting justice.

A ‘veil of darkness’ reduces racial bias in traffic stops

After analyzing 95 million traffic stop records, filed by officers with 21 state patrol agencies and 35 municipal police forces from 2011 to 2018, researchers concluded that “police stops and search decisions suffer from persistent racial bias.”

Stanford big data study finds racial disparities in Oakland, Calif., police behavior, offers solutions

Analyzing thousands of data points, the researchers found racial disparities in how Oakland officers treated African Americans on routine traffic and pedestrian stops. They suggest 50 measures to improve police-community relations.

Race and the death penalty

As questions about racial bias in the criminal justice system dominate the headlines, research by Stanford law Professor John J. Donohue III offers insight into one of the most fraught areas: the death penalty.

Diagnosing disparities in health, medicine

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted communities of color and has highlighted the health disparities between Black Americans, whites and other demographic groups.

As Iris Gibbs , professor of radiation oncology and associate dean of MD program admissions, pointed out at an event sponsored by Stanford Medicine: “We need more sustained attention and real action towards eliminating health inequities, educating our entire community and going beyond ‘allyship,’ because that one fizzles out. We really do need people who are truly there all the way.”

Below is some of that research as well as solutions that can address some of the disparities in the American healthcare system.

Stanford researchers testing ways to improve clinical trial diversity

The American Heart Association has provided funding to two Stanford Medicine professors to develop ways to diversify enrollment in heart disease clinical trials.

Striking inequalities in maternal and infant health

Research by SIEPR’s Petra Persson and Maya Rossin-Slater finds wealthy Black mothers and infants in the U.S. fare worse than the poorest white mothers and infants.

More racial diversity among physicians would lead to better health among black men

A clinical trial in Oakland by Stanford researchers found that black men are more likely to seek out preventive care after being seen by black doctors compared to non-black doctors.

A better measuring stick: Algorithmic approach to pain diagnosis could eliminate racial bias

Traditional approaches to pain management don’t treat all patients the same. AI could level the playing field.

5 questions: Alice Popejoy on race, ethnicity and ancestry in science

Alice Popejoy, a postdoctoral scholar who studies biomedical data sciences, speaks to the role – and pitfalls – of race, ethnicity and ancestry in research.

Stanford Medicine community calls for action against racial injustice, inequities

The event at Stanford provided a venue for health care workers and students to express their feelings about violence against African Americans and to voice their demands for change.

Racial disparity remains in heart-transplant mortality rates, Stanford study finds

African-American heart transplant patients have had persistently higher mortality rates than white patients, but exactly why still remains a mystery.

Finding the COVID-19 Victims that Big Data Misses

Widely used virus tracking data undercounts older people and people of color. Scholars propose a solution to this demographic bias.

Studying how racial stressors affect mental health

Farzana Saleem, an assistant professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education, is interested in the way Black youth and other young people of color navigate adolescence—and the racial stressors that can make the journey harder.

Infants’ race influences quality of hospital care in California

Disparities exist in how babies of different racial and ethnic origins are treated in California’s neonatal intensive care units, but this could be changed, say Stanford researchers.

Immigrants don’t move state-to-state in search of health benefits

When states expand public health insurance to include low-income, legal immigrants, it does not lead to out-of-state immigrants moving in search of benefits.

Excess mortality rates early in pandemic highest among Blacks

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been starkly uneven across race, ethnicity and geography, according to a new study led by SHP's Maria Polyakova.

Decoding bias in media, technology

Driving Artificial Intelligence are machine learning algorithms, sets of rules that tell a computer how to solve a problem, perform a task and in some cases, predict an outcome. These predictive models are based on massive datasets to recognize certain patterns, which according to communication scholar Angele Christin , sometimes come flawed with human bias . 

“Technology changes things, but perhaps not always as much as we think,” Christin said. “Social context matters a lot in shaping the actual effects of the technological tools. […] So, it’s important to understand that connection between humans and machines.”

Below is some of that research, as well as other ways discrimination unfolds across technology, in the media, and ways to counteract it.

IRS disproportionately audits Black taxpayers

A Stanford collaboration with the Department of the Treasury yields the first direct evidence of differences in audit rates by race.

Automated speech recognition less accurate for blacks

The disparity likely occurs because such technologies are based on machine learning systems that rely heavily on databases of English as spoken by white Americans.

New algorithm trains AI to avoid bad behaviors

Robots, self-driving cars and other intelligent machines could become better-behaved thanks to a new way to help machine learning designers build AI applications with safeguards against specific, undesirable outcomes such as racial and gender bias.

Stanford scholar analyzes responses to algorithms in journalism, criminal justice

In a recent study, assistant professor of communication Angèle Christin finds a gap between intended and actual uses of algorithmic tools in journalism and criminal justice fields.

Move responsibly and think about things

In the course CS 181: Computers, Ethics and Public Policy , Stanford students become computer programmers, policymakers and philosophers to examine the ethical and social impacts of technological innovation.

Homicide victims from Black and Hispanic neighborhoods devalued

Social scientists found that homicide victims killed in Chicago’s predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods received less news coverage than those killed in mostly white neighborhoods.

Algorithms reveal changes in stereotypes

New Stanford research shows that, over the past century, linguistic changes in gender and ethnic stereotypes correlated with major social movements and demographic changes in the U.S. Census data.

AI Index Diversity Report: An Unmoving Needle

Stanford HAI’s 2021 AI Index reveals stalled progress in diversifying AI and a scarcity of the data needed to fix it.

Identifying discrimination in the workplace and economy

From who moves forward in the hiring process to who receives funding from venture capitalists, research has revealed how Blacks and other minority groups are discriminated against in the workplace and economy-at-large. 

“There is not one silver bullet here that you can walk away with. Hiring and retention with respect to employee diversity are complex problems,” said Adina Sterling , associate professor of organizational behavior at the Graduate School of Business (GSB). 

Sterling has offered a few places where employers can expand employee diversity at their companies. For example, she suggests hiring managers track data about their recruitment methods and the pools that result from those efforts, as well as examining who they ultimately hire.

Here is some of that insight.

How To: Use a Scorecard to Evaluate People More Fairly

A written framework is an easy way to hold everyone to the same standard.

Archiving Black histories of Silicon Valley

A new collection at Stanford Libraries will highlight Black Americans who helped transform California’s Silicon Valley region into a hub for innovation, ideas.

Race influences professional investors’ judgments

In their evaluations of high-performing venture capital funds, professional investors rate white-led teams more favorably than they do black-led teams with identical credentials, a new Stanford study led by Jennifer L. Eberhardt finds.

Who moves forward in the hiring process?

People whose employment histories include part-time, temporary help agency or mismatched work can face challenges during the hiring process, according to new research by Stanford sociologist David Pedulla.

How emotions may result in hiring, workplace bias

Stanford study suggests that the emotions American employers are looking for in job candidates may not match up with emotions valued by jobseekers from some cultural backgrounds – potentially leading to hiring bias.

Do VCs really favor white male founders?

A field experiment used fake emails to measure gender and racial bias among startup investors.

Can you spot diversity? (Probably not)

New research shows a “spillover effect” that might be clouding your judgment.

Can job referrals improve employee diversity?

New research looks at how referrals impact promotions of minorities and women.

Racial Justice in America: A deeper look

Berkeley News series examines the roots and impact of systemic racism in American society

By Public Affairs , Public Affairs

September 22, 2020

Racial justice protests in America have existed for centuries, yet the nation has not fully reconciled with a violent and racist history that continues to impact communities of color to this day. Berkeley News will take a deeper look through a “Racial Justice in America” series. (Photo courtesy of UC Berkeley Bancroft Library)

You see it on your social media feed: Videos of police called to investigate a Black person for doing something as simple as swimming in a pool, sitting at a café, sleeping in their car or going for a morning jog.

You see it in the racial makeup of your typical American prison and in the homogenous white population of a suburban Bay Area neighborhood. You see it in the lack of polling stations in communities of color and in the typical skin color of the political candidates on their ballots.

And, you see it in the monuments that represent Confederate leaders and slave owners throughout the country, and in the very halls and buildings at UC Berkeley named after white men who advocated and defended anti-Blackness.

Systemic racism is part of the very foundation of America, from the violent colonial conquests of indigenous lands to state-sponsored slavery that fueled the country’s burgeoning economy.

America, though, has yet to fully reconcile with its racist past, despite generations of social movements rallying against the nation’s violent foundations. Earlier this year, the death of George Floyd has once again sparked public outrage toward systemic racism and provided proof for those who didn’t know the deadly price of institutions built from white supremacy .

But today, we see a growing movement of people joining racial justice protests around the country. Protests that represent an angst and cynicism toward a system that many feel has oppressed people of color and their communities for far too long.

UC Berkeley’s Office of Communications and Public Affairs will seek to make sense of American racism through a new “Racial Justice in America” series. The Berkeley News editorial team will probe some of the world’s best minds in fields of study including social welfare, public health, education, history and law.

The series will aggressively explore the history of white supremacy and racism that is being manifested in every facet of American society.

“We find ourselves in a moment that demands deep introspection, a profound soul-searching that transcends the horrific slayings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery,” said Roqua Montez, Berkeley’s executive director of communications and media relations. “Ultimately, it’s about rectifying the very real, very pervasive and very perverse conditions that led to these killings and the violent deaths of so, so many more before them.

“To move forward, we as Americans have to dismantle these violent systems — systems that enforce inequality with a brutal efficiency — and build more just, equitable systems.”

How America and its institutions were created matters.

This is our history. It’s not anti-American to teach it. It’s incredibly American.”

– Professor Denise Herd

“This is our history,” said Denise Herd, a Berkeley professor of public health who is also associate director of the campus’s Othering and Belonging Institute. “It’s not anti-American to teach it. It’s incredibly American. I think there are a lot of people who are interested in working on racial justice issues right now, so there’s an urgency to talk about this and to write about it, and there should be, because everybody needs to really understand this history in order to tackle its contemporary effects.”

The series will also illuminate research by Berkeley scholars, including studies examining why older, unarmed Black men who suffer from mental illness are particularly vulnerable to violence during police encounters, or the psychological dynamics of racism.

While tackling anti-Blackness will be a priority for the new series, the impact of racism on all people of color will be presented, including the stories of indigenous women and girls who have gone missing near oil pipeline camps and studies about the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Native populations.

Berkeley News will examine race justice in America in a new series of stories.

Berkeley students, faculty and staff activism will also be covered, including a profile on performance studies professor Angela Marino, who runs a theatre on campus to build community among people of color.

New courses that examine the role of race in our democratic systems will be analyzed, such as an African American studies and public policy class focused on the racial inequalities that exist in the U.S. Constitution and how they continue to impact American elections.

Berkeley historians will help us to recognize America’s checkered past, including through a feature story on a new documentary about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre being worked on by a Berkeley faculty member.

“If we are at all serious about ending racism, we must have a precise and clear-eyed comprehension of what it is we are ending,” said Berkeley history professor Waldo Martin, who also teaches courses in African American studies. “In turn, our multi-leveled and multi-pronged efforts to achieve the destruction of racism must be guided by that comprehension.”

The Berkeley News series follows campuswide initiatives that encourage increased campus programs to explore social justice and racism. Additional Berkeley efforts include reforms to the campus police department ; an examination of proposals to unname particular campus buildings, on the heels of denaming the Berkeley Law building ; and new scholarships for students of color that help to increase diversity on campus.

Chancellor Carol Christ said that members of the Berkeley community have a responsibility to do what they can to confront and vanquish racism and racial injustice.

“While American democracy was founded on the principles of equal rights, justice and opportunity, those ideals have not been realized for all. We have failed to destroy the plagues of racism and anti-Blackness in the present day,” Christ said. “The combination of Berkeley’s excellent academic resources and our community’s long-standing dedication to making the world a better place means we are uniquely positioned — and motivated — to propel societal change. We have an opportunity, an opportunity that must not be squandered.”

14 influential essays from Black writers on America's problems with race

• Business leaders are calling for people to reflect on civil rights this Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
• Black literary experts shared their top nonfiction essay and article picks on race. 
• The list includes "A Report from Occupied Territory" by James Baldwin.

For many, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a time of reflection on the life of one of the nation's most prominent civil rights leaders. It's also an important time for people who support racial justice to educate themselves on the experiences of Black people in America. 

Business leaders like TIAA CEO Thasunda Duckett Brown and others are encouraging people to reflect on King's life's work, and one way to do that is to read his essays and the work of others dedicated to the same mission he had: racial equity. 

Insider asked Black literary and historical experts to share their favorite works of journalism on race by Black authors. Here are the top pieces they recommended everyone read to better understand the quest for Black liberation in America:

An earlier version of this article was published on June 14, 2020.

"Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases" and "The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States" by Ida B. Wells

In 1892, investigative journalist, activist, and NAACP founding member Ida B. Wells began to publish her research on lynching in a pamphlet titled "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases." Three years later, she followed up with more research and detail in "The Red Record." 

Shirley Moody-Turner, associate Professor of English and African American Studies at Penn State University recommended everyone read these two texts, saying they hold "many parallels to our own moment."  

"In these two pamphlets, Wells exposes the pervasive use of lynching and white mob violence against African American men and women. She discredits the myths used by white mobs to justify the killing of African Americans and exposes Northern and international audiences to the growing racial violence and terror perpetrated against Black people in the South in the years following the Civil War," Moody-Turner told Business Insider. 

Read  "Southern Horrors" here and "The Red Record" here >>

"On Juneteenth" by Annette Gordon-Reed

In this collection of essays, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annette Gordon-Reed combines memoir and history to help readers understand the complexities out of which Juneteenth was born. She also argues how racial and ethnic hierarchies remain in society today, said Moody-Turner. 

"Gordon-Reed invites readers to see Juneteenth as a time to grapple with the complexities of race and enslavement in the US, to re-think our origin stories about race and slavery's central role in the formation of both Texas and the US, and to consider how, as Gordon-Reed so eloquently puts it, 'echoes of the past remain, leaving their traces in the people and events of the present and future.'"

Purchase "On Juneteenth" here>>

"The Case for Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates, best-selling author and national correspondent for The Atlantic, made waves when he published his 2014 article "The Case for Reparations," in which he called for "collective introspection" on reparations for Black Americans subjected to centuries of racism and violence. 

"In his now famed essay for The Atlantic, journalist, author, and essayist, Ta-Nehisi Coates traces how slavery, segregation, and discriminatory racial policies underpin ongoing and systemic economic and racial disparities," Moody-Turner said. 

"Coates provides deep historical context punctuated by individual and collective stories that compel us to reconsider the case for reparations," she added.  

Read it here>>

"The Idea of America" by Nikole Hannah-Jones and the "1619 Project" by The New York Times

In "The Idea of America," Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones traces America's history from 1619 onward, the year slavery began in the US. She explores how the history of slavery is inseparable from the rise of America's democracy in her essay that's part of The New York Times' larger "1619 Project," which is the outlet's ongoing project created in 2019 to re-examine the impact of slavery in the US. 

"In her unflinching look at the legacy of slavery and the underside of American democracy and capitalism, Hannah-Jones asks, 'what if America understood, finally, in this 400th year, that we [Black Americans] have never been the problem but the solution,'" said Moody-Turner, who recommended readers read the whole "1619 Project" as well. 

Read "The Idea of America" here and the rest of the "1619 Project here>>

"Many Thousands Gone" by James Baldwin

In "Many Thousands Gone," James Arthur Baldwin, American novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist lays out how white America is not ready to fully recognize Black people as people. It's a must read, according to Jimmy Worthy II, assistant professor of English at The University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

"Baldwin's essay reminds us that in America, the very idea of Black persons conjures an amalgamation of specters, fears, threats, anxieties, guilts, and memories that must be extinguished as part of the labor to forget histories deemed too uncomfortable to remember," Worthy said.

"Letter from a Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr.

On April 13 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. and other Civil Rights activists were arrested after peaceful protest in Birmingham, Alabama. In jail, King penned an open letter about how people have a moral obligation to break unjust laws rather than waiting patiently for legal change. In his essay, he expresses criticism and disappointment in white moderates and white churches, something that's not often focused on in history textbooks, Worthy said.

"King revises the perception of white racists devoted to a vehement status quo to include white moderates whose theories of inevitable racial equality and silence pertaining to racial injustice prolong discriminatory practices," Worthy said. 

"The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action" by Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde, African American writer, feminist, womanist, librarian, and civil rights activist asks readers to not be silent on important issues. This short, rousing read is crucial for everyone according to Thomonique Moore, a 2016 graduate of Howard University, founder of Books&Shit book club, and an incoming Masters' candidate at Columbia University's Teacher's College. 

"In this essay, Lorde explains to readers the importance of overcoming our fears and speaking out about the injustices that are plaguing us and the people around us. She challenges us to not live our lives in silence, or we risk never changing the things around us," Moore said.  Read it here>>

"The First White President" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

This essay from the award-winning journalist's book " We Were Eight Years in Power ," details how Trump, during his presidency, employed the notion of whiteness and white supremacy to pick apart the legacy of the nation's first Black president, Barack Obama.

Moore said it was crucial reading to understand the current political environment we're in. 

"Just Walk on By" by Brent Staples

In this essay, Brent Staples, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer for The New York Times, hones in on the experience of racism against Black people in public spaces, especially on the role of white women in contributing to the view that Black men are threatening figures.  

For Crystal M. Fleming, associate professor of sociology and Africana Studies at SUNY Stony Brook, his essay is especially relevant right now. 

"We see the relevance of his critique in the recent incident in New York City, wherein a white woman named Amy Cooper infamously called the police and lied, claiming that a Black man — Christian Cooper — threatened her life in Central Park. Although the experience that Staples describes took place decades ago, the social dynamics have largely remained the same," Fleming told Insider. 

"I Was Pregnant and in Crisis. All the Doctors and Nurses Saw Was an Incompetent Black Woman" by Tressie McMillan Cottom

Tressie McMillan Cottom is an author, associate professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University and a faculty affiliate at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. In this essay, Cottom shares her gut-wrenching experience of racism within the healthcare system. 

Fleming called this piece an "excellent primer on intersectionality" between racism and sexism, calling Cottom one of the most influential sociologists and writers in the US today.  Read it here>>

"A Report from Occupied Territory" by James Baldwin

Baldwin's "A Report from Occupied Territory" was originally published in The Nation in 1966. It takes a hard look at violence against Black people in the US, specifically police brutality. 

"Baldwin's work remains essential to understanding the depth and breadth of anti-black racism in our society. This essay — which touches on issues of racialized violence, policing and the role of the law in reproducing inequality — is an absolute must-read for anyone who wants to understand just how much has not changed with regard to police violence and anti-Black racism in our country," Fleming told Insider.  Read it here>>

"I'm From Philly. 30 Years Later, I'm Still Trying To Make Sense Of The MOVE Bombing" by Gene Demby

On May 13, 1985, a police helicopter dropped a bomb on the MOVE compound in Philadelphia, which housed members of the MOVE, a black liberation group founded in 1972 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Eleven people, including five children, died in the airstrike. In this essay, Gene Demby, co-host and correspondent for NPR's Code Switch team, tries to wrap his head around the shocking instance of police violence against Black people. 

"I would argue that the fact that police were authorized to literally bomb Black citizens in their own homes, in their own country, is directly relevant to current conversations about militarized police and the growing movement to defund and abolish policing," Fleming said.  Read it here>>

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• Main content

• Racial Justice, Racial Equity, and Anti-Racism Reading List

In This Section

• Complete Collection

In the wake of violence against Black Americans and in a moment of national reckoning in Summer 2020, the HKS Library pulled together a reading list that is inspired and largely informed by Resources and Reading on Racial Justice, Racial Equity, and Anti-Racism published by the Institutional Anti-Racism and Accountability Project (IARA) at the Ash Center and in partnership with the HKS Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging . 

This reading list is a starting place to find resources that speak to racial justice, racial equity, and anti-racism.  If you have suggestions or feedback, please send us an email: [email protected] . Books are linked to e-book versions where available.

In addition to access through Harvard Library, we believe these titles should be a part of other academic and public libraries. If these titles are not a part of your local libraries, most libraries solicit and support community requests. If you have questions about how to request a title for inclusion in your local library collection, please feel free to reach out to our staff ( [email protected] ) and we are happy to provide guidance.

The New Jim Crow

The New Jim Crow  has spawned a whole generation of criminal justice reform activists and organizations motivated by  Michelle Alexander’ s unforgettable argument that “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” As the  Birmingham News  proclaimed, it is “undoubtedly the most important book published in this century about the U.S.”

Citation:  Alexander, Michelle.  The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness . New York: The New Press, 2020.

• Read e-book @ Harvard Library
• View @ Publisher Site

One Person, No Vote

Carol Anderson follows the astonishing story of government-dictated racial discrimination unfolding before our very eyes as more and more states adopt voter suppression laws. In gripping, enlightening detail she explains how voter suppression works, from photo ID requirements to gerrymandering to poll closures. And with vivid characters, she explores the resistance: the organizing, activism, and court battles to restore the basic right to vote to all Americans.

Citation:  Anderson, Carol.  One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy . New York: Bloomsbury, 2018.

Carefully linking historical flashpoints when social progress for African Americans was countered by deliberate and cleverly crafted opposition, Carol Anderson pulls back the veil that has long covered actions made in the name of protecting democracy, fiscal responsibility, or protection against fraud, rendering visible the long lineage of white rage.

Citation:  Anderson, Carol.  White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide . New York: Bloomsbury, 2016.

The Fire Next Time

At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin ’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two “letters,” written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both Black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism.

Citation:  Baldwin, James.  The Fire Next Time . New York: Vintage, 1992.

• Read e-book @ Harvard Library

White Fragility

Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration,  Robin DiAngelo  examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

Citation:  DiAngelo, Robin.  White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism . Boston: Beacon Press, 2018.

Never Caught

A startling and eye-opening look into America’s First Family, Erica Armstrong Dunbar tells the powerful narrative of Ona Judge, George and Martha Washington’s runaway slave who risked it all to escape the nation’s capital and reach freedom.

Citation:  Dunbar, Erica Armstrong.  Never Caught: The Washington's Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge . 37Ink; Atria Books: New York, 2017.

• View @ Author Site

How to Be Less Stupid About Race

Crystal Fleming  provides your essential guide to breaking through the half-truths and ridiculous misconceptions that have thoroughly corrupted the way race is represented in the classroom, pop culture, media, and politics.

Citation:  Fleming, Crystal.  How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide . New York: Penguin Random House, 2019.

The Broken Heart of America

From Lewis and Clark’s 1804 expedition to the 2014 uprising in Ferguson, American history has been made in St. Louis. And as Walter Johnson shows in this searing book, the city exemplifies how imperialism, racism, and capitalism have persistently entwined to corrupt the nation’s past.

Citation:  Johnson, Walter.  The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States.  New York: Basic Books, 2020.

How to Be an Antiracist

Ibram X. Kendi 's concept of antiracism reenergizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America - but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. Instead of working with the policies and system we have in place, Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it. 

Citation:  Kendi, Ibram X.  How to Be an Antiracist . New York: One World, 2019.

Kiese Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about growing up a hard-headed Black son to a complicated and brilliant Black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, he asks us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this nation actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free.

Citation:  Laymon, Kiese.  Heavy: An American Memoir . New York: Scribner, 2018.

The Condemnation of Blackness

The idea of Black criminality was crucial to the making of modern urban America, as were African Americans’ own ideas about race and crime. Chronicling the emergence of deeply embedded notions of Black people as a dangerous race of criminals by explicit contrast to working-class whites and European immigrants,  Khalil Gibran Muhammad  - HKS Professor of History, Race, and Public Policy - reveals the influence such ideas have had on urban development and social policies.

Citation:  Muhammad, Khalil Gibran.  The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.

The Color of Law

In this groundbreaking history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein , a leading authority on housing policy, explodes the myth that America’s cities came to be racially divided through  de facto  segregation—that is, through individual prejudices, income differences, or the actions of private institutions like banks and real estate agencies. Rather,  The Color of Law  incontrovertibly makes clear that it was  de jure  segregation—the laws and policy decisions passed by local, state, and federal governments—that actually promoted the discriminatory patterns that continue to this day.

Citation:  Rothstein, Richard.  The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America . New York; London: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2017.

• View @ Harvard Library

Courageous Conversations About Race

Glenn Singleton  explains the need for candid, courageous conversations about race so that educators may understand why student disengagement and achievement inequality persists and learn how they can develop a curriculum that promotes true educational equity and excellence.

Citation:  Singleton, Glenn.  Courageous Conversations about Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools . Los Angeles: Corwin, 2015.

This book is  Bryan Stevenson 's (MPP/JD 1985 LLD 2015) unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice. Stevenson was honored by HKS in 2018 with the 2018 Alumni Public Service Award .

Citation:  Stevenson, Bryan.  Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.  New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2015.

• View young adult adaptation @ Publisher Site

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see Black, white, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy?  Beverly Daniel Tatum , a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about enabling communication across racial and ethnic divides.

Citation:  Tatum, Beverly Daniel.  Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations about Race . New York: Basic Books, 2003.

From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation

In this stirring and insightful analysis, activist and scholar  Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor  surveys the historical and contemporary ravages of racism and persistence of structural inequality such as mass incarceration and Black unemployment. In this context, she argues that this new struggle against police violence holds the potential to reignite a broader push for Black liberation.

Citation:  Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta.  From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation . Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2016.

• R ead e-book @ Harvard Library

Race Matters

Race Matters  contains Cornel West ’s most powerful essays on the issues relevant to black Americans today: despair, black conservatism, black-Jewish relations, myths about black sexuality, the crisis in leadership in the black community, and the legacy of Malcolm X. And the insights that he brings to these complicated problems remain fresh, exciting, creative, and compassionate.

Citation:  West, Cornel.  Race Matters . Boston: Beacon Press, 1993.

As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power--which groups have it and which do not. In this book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.

Citation: Wilkerson, Isabel. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents . New York: Random House, 2020.

Charleston Syllabus

In the aftermath of the Charleston massacre, Professors  Chad Williams ,  Kidada E. Williams , and  Keisha N. Blain  sought a way to put the murder-and the subsequent debates in the media-in the context of America's tumultuous history of race relations and racial violence on a global scale. They created the  Charleston Syllabus  on June 19, starting it as a hashtag on Twitter linking to scholarly works on the myriad of issues related to the murder.

Citation:  Williams, Chad, Kidada E. Williams, and Keisha N. Blain. (Eds.)  Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence . Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2016.

Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence

If you believe that talking about race is impolite, or that "colorblindness" is the preferred approach, you must read this book.  Derald Wing Sue  debunks the most pervasive myths using evidence, easy-to-understand examples, and practical tools.

Citation:  Wing Sue, Derald.  Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2015.

The Sum of Us

The Sum of Us is a brilliant analysis of how we arrived here: divided and self-destructing, materially rich but spiritually starved and vastly unequal. Heather McGhee marshals economic and sociological research to tell an irrefutable story of racism's costs, but at the heart of the book are the humble stories of people yearning to be part of a better America, including white supremacy's collateral victims: white people themselves. With startling empathy, this heartfelt message from a Black woman to a multiracial America leaves us with a new vision for a future in which we finally realize that life can be more than a zero-sum game.

Citation: McGhee, Heather. The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together . New York: One World, 2021.

• Hannah-Jones, Nikole. (2019). The 1619 Project .  The New York Times Magazine .
• Coates, Ta-Nehisi. (2014). The Case for Reparations .  The Atlantic .
• DiAngelo, Robin. (2017). Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism .  Huffington Post .
• McIntosh, Peggy. (1989). White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack . Peace and Freedom .
• Serwer, Adam. (2020). The Coronavirus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying .  The Atlantic .
• Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem. (2020). Don’t Understand the Protests? What You're Seeing is People Pushed to the Edge .  Los Angeles Times .
• Hinton, Elizabeth. (2020). The Minneapolis Uprising in Context .  Boston Review .
• Hannah-Jones, Nikole. 1619 .  The New York Times .
• Muhammad, Khalil Gibran and Ben Austen. Some of My Best Friends Are . Pushkin .
• Carroll, Rebecca. Come Through with Rebecca Carroll .  WNYC Studios .
• Biewen, John. Seeing White .  Scene On Radio .
• Raghuveera, Nikhil and Erica Licht. Untying Knots .  SoundCloud .
• Moyo, Thoko. A historic crossroads for systemic racism and policing in America .  PolicyCast . Featuring Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Erica Chenoweth .

Select Community Organizations, provided by the IARA

• View the organizations here (last page of document)

Institutional Anti-Racism and Accountability Project

An Ash Center project working at the intersection of community, academia, and policy to address questions of anti-racism policy, practice, and institutional change.

Maya Sen & Matthew Blackwell's "Deep Roots"

In this  Behind the Book  video, professors take an historical look at how the institution of U.S. slavery continues to shape the views of the present.

Fairness & Justice

HKS faculty tackle policy questions from racial equity, to the climate, to education, and beyond.

Justice Matters Podcast

Carr Center director Sushma Raman investigates a wide array of human rights issues at home and abroad.

Anti-Racism Book & Film Club

Harvard Library facilitates community discussions of anti-Black racism through books & film.

Racial Discrimination and Justice in Education Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

The Impact of Racism in Schools and on the Mental Health of Students

Funding is one of the main factors that ensure racial segregation and exacerbation of the plight of the black population. Being initially in a more disastrous economic situation, racial minority populations fall into a vicious circle. Low-funded schools in poor areas have low academic ratings, which further contributes to the reduction of the material base. Due to their poor academic performance and the need to earn a living, many minorities are deprived of the opportunity to receive prestigious higher education. They are left with low-skilled jobs, which makes it impossible for their children to go to private school or move to a prestigious area with well-funded public schools. In institutions with little funding, unfortunately, manifestations of racism still prevail.

A significant factor in systemic racism in modern schools is the theory of colorblindness as the prevailing ideology in schools and pedagogical universities. The total avoidance of racial topics in schools has led to a complete absence of material related to the culture of racial minorities in the curricula. An example is the complaint of the parents of one of the black students that, during the passage of civilizations, the Greeks, Romans, and Incas were discussed in the lessons, but nothing was said about Africa. However, there were a few African American students in the class (Yi et al., 2022). The white director justified herself by saying that this was the curriculum and that it was not customary at school to divide people by skin color. In response, the student’s mother stated that children have eyes, and they see everything. And she would like them to see that we had a strong and fruitful culture. This state of affairs is justified by the proponents of assimilationism and American patriotism, built mainly around the honoring of the merits of white settlers and the founding fathers.

Meanwhile, the works of many researchers provide evidence that a high level of colorblindness among students correlates with greater racial intolerance. One study on race relations was conducted among young “millennials”. As a result, thousands of reports were recorded of openly racist statements and actions of white people from the field of view of these students (Plaut, et al., 2018). Another study on colorblindness found that white students who avoid mentioning racial issues were less friendly on assignments with black partners. This could be because they have less eye contact.

The shortcomings of the described situation affect not only black students but also white teachers who have not received proper training in their time on how best to take into account the characteristics of students from racial minorities. One researcher writes that in his entire experience in multicultural education, he faced the almost universal embarrassment that racial issues caused to white teachers. A common complaint is: I feel helpless. What am I, as a white teacher, to do? One educator remarked that he had never seen African-American teachers say that they did not distinguish between races (Mekawi et al., 2017). This is further proof that racism and the factors leading to it contribute only to the split of social ties at school. Students from racial minorities feel this burden the most, which leads to their feeling of constant alienation. During the school years, conflicts with children “not like the rest” are especially aggravated – the state of affairs described above provides the basis for constant skirmishes, fights, and tension in institutions.

Suggestions for Creating an Inclusive School Environment

Among the educational factors supporting the status quo of widespread structural racism are the following. This is the system of financing public schools and the dominance of the ideology of colorblindness in schools and pedagogical universities. In the opposite direction, there is such a factor as the peculiarity of keeping educational statistics (Welton, et al., 2018). By providing up-to-date information on the state of affairs of students of various racial and ethnic groups, statistics give rise to the search for optimal solutions in the field of school policy.

The inclusion of racial and ethnic dimensions in educational statistics is intended to provide an objective assessment of the current situation regarding racial differences in American society in order to develop and improve racially relevant policies. In recent years, the ideas of culturally relevant pedagogy have been actively promoted in the US educational sphere. American citizens are becoming more interested and enlightened in the field of racial issues, which can be seen in activist speeches and anti-racist public actions.

It is crucial to teach racism in schools so that all pupils may understand what it is, how it affects, and how to stop tolerating it. There are many publications and learning experience plans that address racism. It is essential to ask teachers and principals to integrate lessons on racism into the syllabus. One can also request that your teachers incorporate novels with a variety of subjects (Welton, et al., 2018). Then, it is important to request that the school draft an inclusion and zero-tolerance statement. Counselors can encourage the instructors and administration to implement these policies at the school if they do not already exist in the code of conduct or other policies (Pizarro & Kohli, 2020). It is critical that schools have clear policies about race and how individuals are treated on campus.

Resources for the School Counselor to Deal With Prejudice and Its Impact at the School

Mekawi, Y., Bresin, K. & Hunter, C.D. (2017). Who is more likely to “not see race”? individual differences in racial colorblindness. Race and Social Problems, 9 (1), 207–217. Web.

The authors claim that many Americans support a colorblind racial philosophy, which emphasizes sameness and the equitable allocation of resources without regard to race. The current study looked at the relationships between aggressiveness, and empathy in white undergraduates and three distinct types of racial colorblindness, including ignorance of racial privilege, ignorance of institutional discrimination, and ignorance of overt racism. The findings showed two distinct trends. In contrast to ignorance of overt racism and institutional discrimination, which were linked to poorer cooperativeness, cognitive flexibility, and empathic concern, ignorance of racial privilege was associated with lower openness and viewpoint-taking. These findings are addressed in light of a larger body of research on bias and personality.

Pizarro, M., & Kohli, R. (2020). “I stopped sleeping”: Teachers of color and the impact of racial Battle Fatigue. Urban Education, 55 (7), 967–991. Web.

According to the authors, an operational definition of racial battle fatigue (RBF) is the mental, emotional, and physical costs of fighting racism. RBF is employed in this article to examine the effects of racism on educators of color who work in a predominately “White profession.” The scholars share counterstories of urban academics of color who confront racism on a regular basis in their workplaces. This has a negative effect on their well-being and ability to stay in the profession. The authors also discuss their resiliency and resistance tactics since they depend on a supportive community to persevere and change their schools.

Plaut, V. C., Thomas, K. M., Hurd, K., & Romano, C. A. (2018). Do Color blindness and multiculturalism remedy or foster discrimination and racism? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27 (3), 200–206. Web.

This article gives psychology science’s perspective on the question of whether multiculturalism and colorblindness are more likely to prevent prejudice and racism than they are to promote it. The authors first concentrate on the results of a color-blind model. The study in this area reveals that while colorblindness may be appealing to certain people, it can also make people less sensitive to racism and prejudice. Additionally, according to the literature, color blindness generally has detrimental effects on intergroup relationships, minorities’ perceptions and results, and the promotion of diversity and inclusion in organizational settings. In the second section, the scholars look at the situations in which a multicultural perspective has beneficial or bad effects on intergroup relations, organizational diversity initiatives, and discrimination.

Welton, A. D., Owens, D. R., & Zamani-Gallaher, E. M. (2018). Anti-racist change: A conceptual framework for educational institutions to take systemic action. Teachers College Record, 120 (14), 1–22. Web.

In order to attain racial justice in education, people’s mindsets must also be changed to embrace a more anti-racist worldview. In order to investigate whether behaviors and leadership qualities could really encourage institutional change for racial justice, the authors review two sets of literature: studies on anti-racism and institutional transformation. However, they admit the constraints of each set of studies. The organizational transformation research often ignores equity concerns, notably racial conversations, while anti-racism research is more ideological and theoretical. The scholars combine essential ideas from the literature on organizational change and anti-racism to propose a conceptual framework that may be utilized to create a systematic anti-racist change at a wide level.

Yi, J., Neville, H. A., Todd, N. R., & Mekawi, Y. (2022). Ignoring race and denying racism: A meta-analysis of the associations between colorblind racial ideology, anti-Blackness, and other variables antithetical to racial justice . Journal of Counseling Psychology . Web.

The authors sought to comprehend how colorblind racial ideology (CBRI), or the rejection and minimizing of race and racism, can act as an obstacle to engaging in antiracist practice by relying on antiracism research. To find out if color evasion (ignorance of race) and power evasion (defiance of structural racism) CBRI were differently connected with anti-Blackness and mechanisms related to antiracism, the scholars specifically performed a meta-analysis. Results from 83 research with more than 25,000 participants and 375 effects reveal that varied effects depend on the kind of CBRI. The area of counseling psychology may be pushed by this meta-analysis to construct a bridge between different ideologies and the development of systemic reform.

Plaut, V. C., Thomas, K. M., Hurd, K., & Romano, C. A. (2018). Do color blindness and multiculturalism remedy or foster discrimination and racism? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27 (3), 200–206. Web.

Yi, J., Neville, H. A., Todd, N. R., & Mekawi, Y. (2022). Ignoring race and denying racism: A meta-analysis of the associations between colorblind racial ideology, anti-Blackness, and other variables antithetical to racial justice. Journal of Counseling Psychology . Web.

• Empathy and Racism in Stockett's The Help and Li's To Kill a Mockingbird
• Causes, Facilitators, and Solutions to Racism
• Ethnicity Problem in the USA
• Anti-Racism in Shakespeare’s Othello
• Colorblind Society: Race and Skin Color in America
• Vertical Lines of Power or Authority
• Racism in the Healthcare Sector
• Unraveling the Science of Human Races
• Racism in Healthcare and Education
• Portrayal of Races: Content Analysis and Literature Review
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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1. IvyPanda . "Racial Discrimination and Justice in Education." November 25, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/racial-discrimination-and-justice-in-education/.

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• Black Americans Have a Clear Vision for Reducing Racism but Little Hope It Will Happen

Many say key U.S. institutions should be rebuilt to ensure fair treatment

Table of contents.

• Black Americans see little improvement in their lives despite increased national attention to racial issues
• Few Black adults expect equality for Black people in the U.S.
• Black adults say racism and police brutality are extremely big problems for Black people in the U.S.
• Personal experiences with discrimination are widespread among Black Americans
• Black adults see voting as the most effective strategy for moving toward equality in the U.S.
• Some Black adults see Black businesses and communities as effective remedies for inequality
• Black Americans say race matters little when choosing political allies
• The legacy of slavery affects Black Americans today
• Most Black adults agree the descendants of enslaved people should be repaid
• The types of repayment Black adults think would be most helpful
• Responsibility for reparations and the likelihood repayment will occur
• Black adults say the criminal justice system needs to be completely rebuilt
• Black adults say political, economic and health care systems need major changes to ensure fair treatment
• Most Black adults say funding for police departments should stay the same or increase
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix: Supplemental tables
• The American Trends Panel survey methodology

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand the nuances among Black people on issues of racial inequality and social change in the United States. This in-depth survey explores differences among Black Americans in their views on the social status of the Black population in the U.S.; their assessments of racial inequality; their visions for institutional and social change; and their outlook on the chances that these improvements will be made. The analysis is the latest in the Center’s series of in-depth surveys of public opinion among Black Americans (read the first, “ Faith Among Black Americans ” and “ Race Is Central to Identity for Black Americans and Affects How They Connect With Each Other ”).

The online survey of 3,912 Black U.S. adults was conducted Oct. 4-17, 2021. Black U.S. adults include those who are single-race, non-Hispanic Black Americans; multiracial non-Hispanic Black Americans; and adults who indicate they are Black and Hispanic. The survey includes 1,025 Black adults on Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP) and 2,887 Black adults on Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel. Respondents on both panels are recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses.

Recruiting panelists by phone or mail ensures that nearly all U.S. Black adults have a chance of selection. This gives us confidence that any sample can represent the whole population (see our Methods 101 explainer on random sampling). Here are the questions used for the survey of Black adults, along with its responses and methodology .

The terms “Black Americans,” “Black people” and “Black adults” are used interchangeably throughout this report to refer to U.S. adults who self-identify as Black, either alone or in combination with other races or Hispanic identity.

Throughout this report, “Black, non-Hispanic” respondents are those who identify as single-race Black and say they have no Hispanic background. “Black Hispanic” respondents are those who identify as Black and say they have Hispanic background. We use the terms “Black Hispanic” and “Hispanic Black” interchangeably. “Multiracial” respondents are those who indicate two or more racial backgrounds (one of which is Black) and say they are not Hispanic.

Respondents were asked a question about how important being Black was to how they think about themselves. In this report, we use the term “being Black” when referencing responses to this question.

In this report, “immigrant” refers to people who were not U.S. citizens at birth – in other words, those born outside the U.S., Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories to parents who were not U.S. citizens. We use the terms “immigrant,” “born abroad” and “foreign-born” interchangeably.

Throughout this report, “Democrats and Democratic leaners” and just “Democrats” both refer to respondents who identify politically with the Democratic Party or who are independent or some other party but lean toward the Democratic Party. “Republicans and Republican leaners” and just “Republicans” both refer to respondents who identify politically with the Republican Party or are independent or some other party but lean toward the Republican Party.

Respondents were asked a question about their voter registration status. In this report, respondents are considered registered to vote if they self-report being absolutely certain they are registered at their current address. Respondents are considered not registered to vote if they report not being registered or express uncertainty about their registration.

To create the upper-, middle- and lower-income tiers, respondents’ 2020 family incomes were adjusted for differences in purchasing power by geographic region and household size. Respondents were then placed into income tiers: “Middle income” is defined as two-thirds to double the median annual income for the entire survey sample. “Lower income” falls below that range, and “upper income” lies above it. For more information about how the income tiers were created, read the methodology .

More than a year after the murder of George Floyd and the national protests, debate and political promises that ensued, 65% of Black Americans say the increased national attention on racial inequality has not led to changes that improved their lives. 1 And 44% say equality for Black people in the United States is not likely to be achieved, according to newly released findings from an October 2021 survey of Black Americans by Pew Research Center.

This is somewhat of a reversal in views from September 2020, when half of Black adults said the increased national focus on issues of race would lead to major policy changes to address racial inequality in the country and 56% expected changes that would make their lives better.

At the same time, many Black Americans are concerned about racial discrimination and its impact. Roughly eight-in-ten say they have personally experienced discrimination because of their race or ethnicity (79%), and most also say discrimination is the main reason many Black people cannot get ahead (68%).  

Even so, Black Americans have a clear vision for how to achieve change when it comes to racial inequality. This includes support for significant reforms to or complete overhauls of several U.S. institutions to ensure fair treatment, particularly the criminal justice system; political engagement, primarily in the form of voting; support for Black businesses to advance Black communities; and reparations in the forms of educational, business and homeownership assistance. Yet alongside their assessments of inequality and ideas about progress exists pessimism about whether U.S. society and its institutions will change in ways that would reduce racism.

These findings emerge from an extensive Pew Research Center survey of 3,912 Black Americans conducted online Oct. 4-17, 2021. The survey explores how Black Americans assess their position in U.S. society and their ideas about social change. Overall, Black Americans are clear on what they think the problems are facing the country and how to remedy them. However, they are skeptical that meaningful changes will take place in their lifetime.

Black Americans see racism in our laws as a big problem and discrimination as a roadblock to progress

Black adults were asked in the survey to assess the current nature of racism in the United States and whether structural or individual sources of this racism are a bigger problem for Black people. About half of Black adults (52%) say racism in our laws is a bigger problem than racism by individual people, while four-in-ten (43%) say acts of racism committed by individual people is the bigger problem. Only 3% of Black adults say that Black people do not experience discrimination in the U.S. today.

In assessing the magnitude of problems that they face, the majority of Black Americans say racism (63%), police brutality (60%) and economic inequality (54%) are extremely or very big problems for Black people living in the U.S. Slightly smaller shares say the same about the affordability of health care (47%), limitations on voting (46%), and the quality of K-12 schools (40%).

Aside from their critiques of U.S. institutions, Black adults also feel the impact of racial inequality personally. Most Black adults say they occasionally or frequently experience unfair treatment because of their race or ethnicity (79%), and two-thirds (68%) cite racial discrimination as the main reason many Black people cannot get ahead today.

Black Americans’ views on reducing racial inequality

Black Americans are clear on the challenges they face because of racism. They are also clear on the solutions. These range from overhauls of policing practices and the criminal justice system to civic engagement and reparations to descendants of people enslaved in the United States.

Changing U.S. institutions such as policing, courts and prison systems

About nine-in-ten Black adults say multiple aspects of the criminal justice system need some kind of change (minor, major or a complete overhaul) to ensure fair treatment, with nearly all saying so about policing (95%), the courts and judicial process (95%), and the prison system (94%).

Roughly half of Black adults say policing (49%), the courts and judicial process (48%), and the prison system (54%) need to be completely rebuilt for Black people to be treated fairly. Smaller shares say the same about the political system (42%), the economic system (37%) and the health care system (34%), according to the October survey.

While Black Americans are in favor of significant changes to policing, most want spending on police departments in their communities to stay the same (39%) or increase (35%). A little more than one-in-five (23%) think spending on police departments in their area should be decreased.

Black adults who favor decreases in police spending are most likely to name medical, mental health and social services (40%) as the top priority for those reappropriated funds. Smaller shares say K-12 schools (25%), roads, water systems and other infrastructure (12%), and reducing taxes (13%) should be the top priority.

Voting and ‘buying Black’ viewed as important strategies for Black community advancement

Black Americans also have clear views on the types of political and civic engagement they believe will move Black communities forward. About six-in-ten Black adults say voting (63%) and supporting Black businesses or “buying Black” (58%) are extremely or very effective strategies for moving Black people toward equality in the U.S. Smaller though still significant shares say the same about volunteering with organizations dedicated to Black equality (48%), protesting (42%) and contacting elected officials (40%).

Black adults were also asked about the effectiveness of Black economic and political independence in moving them toward equality. About four-in-ten (39%) say Black ownership of all businesses in Black neighborhoods would be an extremely or very effective strategy for moving toward racial equality, while roughly three-in-ten (31%) say the same about establishing a national Black political party. And about a quarter of Black adults (27%) say having Black neighborhoods governed entirely by Black elected officials would be extremely or very effective in moving Black people toward equality.

Most Black Americans support repayment for slavery

Discussions about atonement for slavery predate the founding of the United States. As early as 1672 , Quaker abolitionists advocated for enslaved people to be paid for their labor once they were free. And in recent years, some U.S. cities and institutions have implemented reparations policies to do just that.

Most Black Americans say the legacy of slavery affects the position of Black people in the U.S. either a great deal (55%) or a fair amount (30%), according to the survey. And roughly three-quarters (77%) say descendants of people enslaved in the U.S. should be repaid in some way.

Black adults who say descendants of the enslaved should be repaid support doing so in different ways. About eight-in-ten say repayment in the forms of educational scholarships (80%), financial assistance for starting or improving a business (77%), and financial assistance for buying or remodeling a home (76%) would be extremely or very helpful. A slightly smaller share (69%) say cash payments would be extremely or very helpful forms of repayment for the descendants of enslaved people.

Where the responsibility for repayment lies is also clear for Black Americans. Among those who say the descendants of enslaved people should be repaid, 81% say the U.S. federal government should have all or most of the responsibility for repayment. About three-quarters (76%) say businesses and banks that profited from slavery should bear all or most of the responsibility for repayment. And roughly six-in-ten say the same about colleges and universities that benefited from slavery (63%) and descendants of families who engaged in the slave trade (60%).

Black Americans are skeptical change will happen

Even though Black Americans’ visions for social change are clear, very few expect them to be implemented. Overall, 44% of Black adults say equality for Black people in the U.S. is a little or not at all likely. A little over a third (38%) say it is somewhat likely and only 13% say it is extremely or very likely.

They also do not think specific institutions will change. Two-thirds of Black adults say changes to the prison system (67%) and the courts and judicial process (65%) that would ensure fair treatment for Black people are a little or not at all likely in their lifetime. About six-in-ten (58%) say the same about policing. Only about one-in-ten say changes to policing (13%), the courts and judicial process (12%), and the prison system (11%) are extremely or very likely.

This pessimism is not only about the criminal justice system. The majority of Black adults say the political (63%), economic (62%) and health care (51%) systems are also unlikely to change in their lifetime.

Black Americans’ vision for social change includes reparations. However, much like their pessimism about institutional change, very few think they will see reparations in their lifetime. Among Black adults who say the descendants of people enslaved in the U.S. should be repaid, 82% say reparations for slavery are unlikely to occur in their lifetime. About one-in-ten (11%) say repayment is somewhat likely, while only 7% say repayment is extremely or very likely to happen in their lifetime.

Black Democrats, Republicans differ on assessments of inequality and visions for social change

Party affiliation is one key point of difference among Black Americans in their assessments of racial inequality and their visions for social change. Black Republicans and Republican leaners are more likely than Black Democrats and Democratic leaners to focus on the acts of individuals. For example, when summarizing the nature of racism against Black people in the U.S., the majority of Black Republicans (59%) say racist acts committed by individual people is a bigger problem for Black people than racism in our laws. Black Democrats (41%) are less likely to hold this view.

Black Republicans (45%) are also more likely than Black Democrats (21%) to say that Black people who cannot get ahead in the U.S. are mostly responsible for their own condition. And while similar shares of Black Republicans (79%) and Democrats (80%) say they experience racial discrimination on a regular basis, Republicans (64%) are more likely than Democrats (36%) to say that most Black people who want to get ahead can make it if they are willing to work hard.

On the other hand, Black Democrats are more likely than Black Republicans to focus on the impact that racial inequality has on Black Americans. Seven-in-ten Black Democrats (73%) say racial discrimination is the main reason many Black people cannot get ahead in the U.S, while about four-in-ten Black Republicans (44%) say the same. And Black Democrats are more likely than Black Republicans to say racism (67% vs. 46%) and police brutality (65% vs. 44%) are extremely big problems for Black people today.

Black Democrats are also more critical of U.S. institutions than Black Republicans are. For example, Black Democrats are more likely than Black Republicans to say the prison system (57% vs. 35%), policing (52% vs. 29%) and the courts and judicial process (50% vs. 35%) should be completely rebuilt for Black people to be treated fairly.

While the share of Black Democrats who want to see large-scale changes to the criminal justice system exceeds that of Black Republicans, they share similar views on police funding. Four-in-ten each of Black Democrats and Black Republicans say funding for police departments in their communities should remain the same, while around a third of each partisan coalition (36% and 37%, respectively) says funding should increase. Only about one-in-four Black Democrats (24%) and one-in-five Black Republicans (21%) say funding for police departments in their communities should decrease.

Among the survey’s other findings:

Black adults differ by age in their views on political strategies. Black adults ages 65 and older (77%) are most likely to say voting is an extremely or very effective strategy for moving Black people toward equality. They are significantly more likely than Black adults ages 18 to 29 (48%) and 30 to 49 (60%) to say this. Black adults 65 and older (48%) are also more likely than those ages 30 to 49 (38%) and 50 to 64 (42%) to say protesting is an extremely or very effective strategy. Roughly four-in-ten Black adults ages 18 to 29 say this (44%).

Gender plays a role in how Black adults view policing. Though majorities of Black women (65%) and men (56%) say police brutality is an extremely big problem for Black people living in the U.S. today, Black women are more likely than Black men to hold this view. When it comes to criminal justice, Black women (56%) and men (51%) are about equally likely to share the view that the prison system should be completely rebuilt to ensure fair treatment of Black people. However, Black women (52%) are slightly more likely than Black men (45%) to say this about policing. On the matter of police funding, Black women (39%) are slightly more likely than Black men (31%) to say police funding in their communities should be increased. On the other hand, Black men are more likely than Black women to prefer that funding stay the same (44% vs. 36%). Smaller shares of both Black men (23%) and women (22%) would like to see police funding decreased.

Income impacts Black adults’ views on reparations. Roughly eight-in-ten Black adults with lower (78%), middle (77%) and upper incomes (79%) say the descendants of people enslaved in the U.S. should receive reparations. Among those who support reparations, Black adults with upper and middle incomes (both 84%) are more likely than those with lower incomes (75%) to say educational scholarships would be an extremely or very helpful form of repayment. However, of those who support reparations, Black adults with lower (72%) and middle incomes (68%) are more likely than those with higher incomes (57%) to say cash payments would be an extremely or very helpful form of repayment for slavery.

• Black adults in the September 2020 survey only include those who say their race is Black alone and are non-Hispanic. The same is true only for the questions of improvements to Black people’s lives and equality in the United States in the October 2021 survey. Throughout the rest of this report, Black adults include those who say their race is Black alone and non-Hispanic; those who say their race is Black and at least one other race and non-Hispanic; or Black and Hispanic, unless otherwise noted. ↩

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Resources for Teaching About Race and Racism With The New York Times

A curated collection of over 75 lesson plans, writing prompts, short films and graphs relating to racism and racial justice.

By Nicole Daniels ,  Michael Gonchar and Natalie Proulx

The summer of 2020 was not the first time that urgent conversations about race and racism were happening in homes, classrooms and workplaces. But the energy of the Black Lives Matter protests, believed by many to be the largest in U.S. history , was unparalleled. Though the demands and chants may have echoed those heard in previous years, never before, The New York Times reported , “have the cries carried this kind of muscle.” Among American voters, support for the movement grew in the first two weeks of protests almost as much as it did in the preceding two years.

Our focus at The Learning Network is creating educational resources based on Times reporting, and as part of that work we prioritize creating resources that center conversations around race and racism . However, we appreciate that there are organizations and communities, like Learning for Justice , Facing History and Ourselves , EduColor and others you can find in the “Additional Outside Resources” list in this post, whose primary mission is to bring these conversations into the classroom.

This fall students on our site showed us how passionately they want to have these discussions. In September we introduced a forum on racial justice . Over 2,000 comments poured in , as teenagers shared their own experiences and stretched to understand the experiences of others. Some also expressed the wish that more of these conversations would happen in school. One student, Hermella, told us:

I think that schools and parents as well should start teaching kids from the beginning about racial equality, so that hopefully in the future, more people would deeply understand its meaning and grow up to respect all citizens.

Another student, Lizzy , wrote:

School had always taught me that blacks and whites were equals and that was it. I was ignorant of the problem until I chose to educate myself. I think that schools should be partially responsible for educating students on the racial injustices in the world.

Through our daily writing prompts, lesson plans and multimedia features, we take on the topics of race and racism regularly. But for teachers not sure how to navigate all of these resources, or even how to begin the conversation, we’re pulling these resources together — all in one place.

Below you’ll find a curated list of dozens of resources we hope can help. Below that, you’ll find a list of other organizations doing this work, including the Pulitzer Center, which has created a growing curriculum for using The New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project . Finally, we offer a few tips and strategies for facilitating these conversations, provided by educators who are already doing this work.

We’ll discuss many of these teaching tools in our March 4 webinar on Talking About Race and Racism in the Classroom Using The New York Times. Here’s how to register or watch on demand later.

What's Included in This Collection?

• A Collection of Learning Network Resources
• Additional Outside Resources
• Getting Started: Advice From Four Educators

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Racial Justice 101: Definitions, Examples, and Learning Opportunities

Racial justice is the equal and fair treatment of everyone regardless of ethnicity or race. To achieve racial justice, societies must tackle racial prejudice, discrimination, and systems that disproportionately harm some while favoring others. What do you need to know about racial justice? In this article, we’ll explore important definitions, examples of racial justice, and learning opportunities like courses and books.

Racial justice reckons with the legacies of discrimination, removes existing barriers to racial equality, and promotes equity.

Definitions: Where do race and racism come from?

The world didn’t always believe in race. According to author and activist George M. Fredrickson, race and racism first emerged during the Middle Ages. The 13th and 14th centuries in particular saw an increase in antisemitism, which the Southern Poverty Law Center refers to as “the oldest hatred.” However, the word “race” didn’t start to have its modern meaning until the 17th century . Scientists, philosophers, and other academics were categorizing plants, animals, and other parts of the natural world using reason and science, so it only made sense to them to categorize humans in the same way. Through the 18th century, Europeans projected their ignorance, biases, and hatred into their categorizations, creating racial hierarchies that put white people on top. “Race science” justified the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, colonization, and other atrocities.

While race as a social construct is very real, research consistently disproves the merits of race science; there is no genetic basis for race. This is important to understand because inaccurate views about so-called “inherent” racial differences often justify inequality. In reality, racial injustice is sustained by three types of racism : interpersonal, institutional, and systemic racism.

Interpersonal racism springs from an individual’s beliefs and attitudes about race. It occurs between individuals and can include slurs, biases, and hate crimes. Institutional racism manifests within an organization and includes discriminatory behaviors, biased policies, and organizational practices that create inequitable outcomes. Systemic racism is society-wide and refers to systems of racial biases that privilege certain groups while disadvantaging others. Racial justice requires a reckoning with interpersonal, institutional, and systemic racism.

What do you feel is the biggest barrier to achieving racial justice?

• A lack of understanding about racism and racial justice
• A lack of funding for racial justice organizations and initiatives
• Hostility toward transforming institutions and systems

View Results

What are some examples of racial justice?

You now have a clearer idea of where ideas about race and racism come from. How have people fought against racial injustice over the years? Here are three major examples:

#1 Ending segregation

Case study: South Africa

For almost 50 years, South Africa had a society segregated by race. The process took centuries following the arrival of Dutch settlers in South Africa. Even though white settlers made up a minority of the population, they eventually gained total control of South Africa’s government and economy in 1948. The all-white National Party enforced harsh racial segregation , which separated people based on their race, criminalized interracial marriage, and denied Black South Africans equal rights and opportunities.

For the anti-apartheid movement, racial justice efforts took many forms. The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict lists strategies such as school boycotts, mass demonstrations, memorials, economic boycotts, and much more. In the late 1980s, change finally arrived. The government began negotiations with anti-apartheid groups and in 1993, the prime minister agreed to hold the first all-race, democratic election . Nelson Mandela was elected and in 1994, the apartheid system finally ended.

The legacy of segregation continues to impact South Africa. As an example, while the ANC funded almost 2 million homes for Black South Africans between 1994-2004, the homes’ locations reinforced segregation and existing issues like limited access to public services, high costs, and long commutes. In 2022, South Africa was the most unequal country in the world ; 10% of the population held more than 80% of the wealth. Race is still a big reason why, so while apartheid may have ended, racial justice is still being fought for.

#2 Reforming the criminal justice system

Case study: The United States

The United States criminal justice system is racially biased. According to data from the NAACP , Black Americans make up 22% of fatal police shootings, 47% of wrongful conviction exonerations, and 35% of those who receive the death penalty. Black people make up just 13.4% of the US population. These numbers aren’t disproportionate because Black people are inherently more criminal. In her book The New Jim Crow , legal scholar Michelle Alexander points to projects like the war on drugs, which was part of Ronald Reagan’s “Southern strategy” to appeal to poor and working-class white people resentful of the gains of the Civil Rights movement.

To improve racial justice, the criminal justice system must be reformed. In an overview of criminal justice reform in 2022, the Sentencing Project lists trends like reducing prison admissions, adopting sentencing alternatives for drug offenses, limiting incarceration for parole violations, and ensuring incarcerated voters get access to voting. How police operate in the country must also be challenged. Police violence (which is a global problem ) and the level of protection violent cops receive are two major racial justice issues.

#3 Paying reparations

Case study: Harvard University

The OHCHR defines reparations as “measures to redress violations of human rights by providing a range of material and symbolic benefits to victims or their families as well as affected communities.” In the United States, reparations come up during discussions about the legacy of slavery. Since 1991, NAACP has affirmed reparations such as a national apology, financial payment, social service benefits, and land grants. While there are currently no federal reparations programs, universities have begun adopting them.

Harvard University is one example. In 2022, the school released a report documenting its ties to slavery, which included direct, financial, and intellectual connections. As part of its reckoning, Harvard announced it was setting aside $100 million for an endowment fund and other actions. It does not mention direct reparations to descendants of those impacted by Harvard’s history with slavery. Harvard isn’t the only university to adopt some form of reparations; Georgetown University has the Reconciliation Fund . This fund gives $400,000 annually to projects directly impacting descendents of those enslaved on the Maryland Jesuit plantations. Reparations are controversial. While 77% of Black adults think descendants of enslaved people should receive some kind of reparations, just 18% of white U.S. adults agree.

Where can you find learning opportunities about racial justice?

This article only scratches the surface of racial justice, so here are three courses where you can learn more:

Anti-Racism Specialization (University of Colorado Boulder)

This 3-course specialization is a great choice for students interested in race and racism, especially in the United States. You’ll learn about critical race theory, historical and linguistic constructions of race in the US, and the theory of intersectionality. You’ll also learn to apply what you’ve learned outside the US, develop an interview project, and create a plan for practicing anti-racism.

Shawn O’Neal and Jennifer Ho from the Ethnic Studies department teach the course. If you take all three courses, the specialization takes about 3 months with 6 hours of work per week. No prerequisites are required.

REGISTER HERE

Structural Racism: Causes of Health Inequities in the US (University of Michigan)

Racial health disparities are very common in the US. This course digs into the reasons why and teaches students how to identify solutions. By the course’s end, you’ll be ready to describe the impact of structural racism, identify what causes current racial health inequities, and apply public writing strategies to combat racial health inequities.

Paul Fleming (Assistant Professor of Health Behavior & Health Education) and William D. Lopez (Assistant Professor of Health Behavior & Health Education) teach the course, which is divided into three modules. It takes 17 hours total to finish the course. No prerequisites are required.

Beyond Diversity: Anti-Racism and Equity in the Workplace (Berkeley University of California)

This professional certificate is great for diversity professionals interested in further career growth. Over three courses, you’ll learn how to navigate complicated group dynamics, communicate in challenging situations, and make critical decisions. By the end, you’ll be ready to identify and respond to unconscious and implicit bias, understand the perspectives of minoritized employees, implement equitable hiring practices, and create an equitable, inclusive workplace for everyone.

Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton (Professor of Psychology) leads the course. With 5-8 hours of work per week, you can finish the certificate in about six months. As the courses are intermediate, some background knowledge is valuable, but there are no specific prerequisites.

What racial justice books should you read?

If you’re looking for texts about racial justice, here are five good ones to start with:

The Third Reconstruction: America’s Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century (2022)

Peniel E. Joseph

Historian Peniel E. Joseph frames 2020 as the “climax” of a Third Reconstruction and new struggle for Black Americans. With insight into centuries past, Joseph tracks the Third Reconstruction from Barack Obama’s election to the January 6th assault on the capitol. While the first two Reconstructions fell short, can the Third Reconstruction achieve victory?

To Exist is to Resist: Black Feminism in Europe (2019)

Francesa Sobanade (editor) and Akwugo Emejulu (editor)

In this book, activists, artists, and scholars explore how Black feminism and Afrofeminism are practiced in Europe. Gender, class, sexuality, and legal status are just a few examples of what’s covered in this text. With sharp insight, the authors imagine a future beyond the boundaries of neocolonialism and modern Europe practices.

Caste: The Origins of our Discontents (2020) 

Isabel Wilkerson

Why is America the way it is? In this book, Isabel Wilkerson describes a hidden caste system, which goes beyond race, class, and other factors. She describes the eight pillars that uphold caste systems across time, including stigma, bloodlines, and divine will, and explores how American can move on from artificial divisions toward true equality.

So You Want to Talk About Race (2019)

Ijeoma Oluo

How do you talk about race? In this book, Ijeoma Oluo provides a roadmap for talking about race with the people in your life, including family and coworkers. She covers topics like police brutality, the model minority myth, and cultural appropriation. Written with all races in mind, this book is a valuable tool for anyone interested in tough, honest conversations.

How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective (2017)

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (editor)

In the 1960s and ‘70s, a group of radical Black feminists formed the Combahee River Collective. This book collects essays and interviews with the group’s founding members and contemporary activists reflecting on the group’s groundbreaking influence. How We Get Free is a vital read for anyone interested in feminism and racial justice.

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About the author, emmaline soken-huberty.

Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog.

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From Civil Rights to Racial Justice: Understanding African-American Social Justice Movements

FPC Briefing

Dr. Alvin B. Tillery, Jr., Director of the Center for the Study of Diversity in Democracy and Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University

Friday, April 23, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. EDT

Washington, D.C.

April 23, 2021

The Summer of 2020 saw the United States’ biggest protests for racial justice and civil rights in a generation, when deaths of African Americans in police custody brought a national reckoning with systemic racism.  As we near the one year anniversary of some of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history ,   Dr.  Alvin  Tiller y,     Associate  Professor of Political Science  at Northwestern University , discusses :  what the recent verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial means for  racial equity in  the United Stat es,  how current racial justice movements, like Black Lives Matter, fit within the broader history of the U.S. civil rights movement, and how today’s efforts differ from past American racial justice initiatives.  

THE WASHINGTON FOREIGN PRESS CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C. (Virtual)

MODERATOR: Okay, let’s get started. Good afternoon and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center briefing, “From Civil Rights to Racial Justice: Understanding African American Social Justice Movements.” My name is Jen McAndrew, and I’m the moderator.  

First I will introduce our briefer, and then I will give the ground rules.  

The summer of 2020 saw the United States’ biggest protest for racial justice and civil rights in a generation, when deaths of African Americans in police custody brought a national reckoning with systemic racism. As we near the one-year anniversary of some of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history, Dr. Alvin Tillery, director of the Center for the Study of Diversity in Democracy and associate professor of political science at Northwestern University, will discuss what the recent verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial means for racial equity in the United States, how current racial justice movements like Black Lives Matter fit within the broader history of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and how today’s efforts differ from past American racial justice initiatives.  

Addressing racial justice and equity is a top priority for the Biden-Harris administration, and we greatly appreciate Dr. Tillery giving his time today to provide context and analysis of current events and their historical underpinnings.  

And now for the ground rules. This briefing is on the record. The views expressed by briefers not affiliated with the Department of State or U.S. Government are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of State or the U.S. Government. Participation in Foreign Press Center programming does not imply endorsement, approval, or recommendation of their views.  

We will post the transcript of this briefing later today on our website. Dr. Tillery will give opening remarks, and then we will open it up for questions. If you have a question, you can go to the participant field and virtually raise your hand.  

And with that, I will pass it over to Dr. Tillery. Over to you.  

MR TILLERY: Thank you so much, Jen, for that kind introduction. And thank you for inviting me to participate in this briefing.  

So I am going to share some slides which will give a little bit of an overview of my background and the work that I’ve been doing and some of the empirical work that’s been coming out of my research center about the Black Lives Matter movement. And then I’ll close by talking about what I think all this means for not only the Chauvin verdict, but for our quest to achieve greater racial equity in the United States of America. So I’m going to share my screen, and I just have a few slides that I would like to walk through.  

So first I’ll say that I’m an African American who came of age in that time when America was in the shadow of the – what we call the classic phase of the Civil Rights Movement. And so I’m in that generation that sort of really experienced integration in the United States. I integrated my – helped to integrate my neighborhood. I integrated my bus stop. I am a survivor of racial violence myself. I’m a lynching survivor. And so for me, the work of being a social scientist was always – has always been about the work of trying to find ways to bolster tolerance in our society, and also find ways to help people live together better.  

And so in 2016 and ’17 I became very concerned that America was on a path that was going backwards, that we were in essence returning to some of the days of hardship that I know my parents growing up in Jim Crow America and grandparents had experienced and that I had experienced in this kind of integration era.  

And so I founded the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy at Northwestern to do translational research and pedagogies about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and to translate that research to corporations, governments, and nonprofits. Our main programs now are we run an executive education program on leading diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we also have a poll, the CSDD poll, and it has emerged as a major contributor to empirical research on the Black Lives Matter movement. And most of what I’m going to say today will be results drawn from that polling work. That’s what I’m going to share primarily with the group.  

But just to give a little bit of context about why I started this work and why America is still struggling with racial equity, we’ve got to come to grips with the fact of our historical context. The 1787 Constitution established America, and so for most of our history as a nation we were essentially a master-race democracy, or what we call in the social sciences a racial dictatorship, meaning that you had to be some sort of white person in order to fully exercise the democratic rights in the society, to move freely in the labor force and in the housing markets, and to sort of participate in the systems of justice that administer America.  

It’s really not until 1968 when President Johnson signed the fourth of the charter civil rights laws that he signed, starting with the Civil Rights Act, then the Voting Rights Act, then the Hart- Celler  immigration reform act of 1965, which took away the racial origins quotas and said that you no longer had to be some sort of white person to immigrate and naturalize to the country, and the fourth one, 1968, was the Fair Housing Act, right? And so we really don’t begin to try to be a full, multiracial democracy until that final law is signed, right? And so that’s just 52 years ago. Just to put it into context, that’s two years before I was born, so by the time that I reached the level of grade school, we’re in the middle of doing this work of trying to be a multiracial democracy. And so that’s where the first movement, right, the movement that we associate with people like Dr. King and Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer, we call the classic Civil Rights Movement of 1950s and ‘60s – what it was all about was bringing their power as activists, as   mobilizers of the masses, to bear in partnership typically with powerful leaders like President Johnson but sometimes in opposition to them, right, in order to pass these laws, right? And these laws were striking at the late 19th, early 20th century laws that sanctioned a de jure or legal caste system whereby blacks were expected to sort of take a lesser share in American life according to the laws.  

And so where we are now in the wake of the George Floyd, the verdict in the Derek Chauvin murder trial, is that we are reaping the benefits of a – another very powerful black-led social movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, which really started in earnest in 2013 when these three women – Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi – posted the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on Twitter in response to a jury’s decision to acquit George Zimmerman in the vigilante shooting death of African American teenager Trayvon Martin. And so the movement starts with a kind of unjust killing of a young black person, and it’s beginning to reap benefits in terms of how it’s impacting the structure of police brutality and extralegal killings with regard to policing in America.  

And so the Black Lives Matter movement grew from social media. The hashtag is one of the three most utilized hashtags on Twitter. I think it’s been tweeted something on the order of 65, 70 million times at this point. The first wave of Black Lives Matter protests which I began studying started shortly after the hashtag. Black Lives Matter became the rallying cry of what we call the first wave of Black Lives Matter protests in places like New York City and Ferguson, Missouri, in the summer of 2015, right, protesting the deaths of Eric Garner, who was choked to death by a police officer. His supposed infraction was selling loose cigarettes. And Michael Brown, of course, was shot in Ferguson, Missouri.  

Estimates of the first wave of Black Lives Matter protests were that somewhere on the order of 2,500 to 3,500 protests happened across the nation in the two years between the first protests in Ferguson and the 2016 election.  

In the Trump era, there were consistent Black Lives Matter protests, but it didn’t reach – they didn’t reach their zenith in terms of participation, in capturing media attention again like they did in the first wave until after the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, and then, of course, the infamous killing of George Floyd, which was televised across the world in Minneapolis last May 25th.  

And so The New York Times and cell phone tracking services have estimated that the wave of protests that started after May 25th through to the end of the year was the largest mass movement in American history. Polling data confirms that. Something on the order of 10 percent, 7 to 10 percent of Americans, claim that they have participated in Black Lives Matter protests since George Floyd was murdered last May. And estimates done by counting groups argue that somewhere between 7,500 to 10,000 protests occurred in the second wave of Black Lives Matter activism. That activism was also much more multiracial and much more likely to penetrate into suburban and into rural areas than had previously been the case, according to estimates.  

I also want to note that something on the order of 95 to 97 percent of those protests involved no property damage and absolutely no violence; and when there was violence, we’re now learning that a good number of that violence was staged by opponents of the movement. Like we know   that the (inaudible) that was (inaudible) in Minneapolis in the wake of the George Floyd killing, that that was done by a white supremacist group called the Boogaloo  Bois  in order to tar the movement with these claims of violence. So largest movement in American history, overwhelmingly peaceful, increasingly multiracial, right? Those are the big takeaways about the second movement.  

First wave of the movement (inaudible) some criticisms that the movement was not following the standard playbook for African American activism that had been set by the Civil Rights Movement of the ‘50s and ‘60s. Civil Rights Movement of the ‘50s and ‘60s was all about changing laws. They would create disruptions and it quickly turned to negotiation with local leaders in order to achieve incremental gains toward the work of (inaudible). Black Lives Matter is a much more disruptive movement. There’s no centralized leadership (inaudible) was led by the so called Big Six civil rights organizations. Black Lives Matter is decentralized. Much of the action and leadership happens at the local level. We don’t even know the names of most of the – of the (inaudible) leaders of the movement on the local level, right?  

And so that led social movement scholars in 2014 and ’15, including myself, to say that Black Lives Matter is really what we call a new social movement. It’s really about expression and disruption, and not so much about impacting politics and outcomes, right? Well, I’m going to say that much of my empirical data I’ve done (inaudible) research institute over the last four years has changed my mind on that. It’s disrupted my view that there’s this  gulf  in terms of the way that the Black Lives Matter movement approaches things and the way that the classic Civil Rights Movement approaches things.  

And so we’ve done a bunch of studies on messaging, how the Black Lives Matter movement organizations message on Twitter, affecting opinion in black America. We ran what we think is the first nationally representative survey of African  Americans (inaudible)  they are seeing the movement. And then with my brilliant young colleague, Tabitha Bonilla, another Northwestern  faculty  (inaudible), we’ve been running studies on political behavior. How is the movement affecting the political behavior of white (inaudible)? And then recently, we ran an important study on Georgia, how – what’s the electoral  impact  (inaudible)  of the  movement?  

And so I’m just going to present some quick findings from these studies and then I’ll open it up to questions, right. So on the (inaudible) we wanted to know is: How do BLM activists communicate on social media and what actions do they urge their adherents to take? And so I studied 18,708 tweets. I published this in a paper in the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics in 2019 or 2020. And what I found is that overwhelmingly, blacks frame their movement in what we call classically liberal terms. They’re talking about things like individual rights (inaudible) free of police violence and harm, the right to expression, the right to free movement that’s – I think that that’s a big reason why the Black Lives Matter movement in the second wave has so resonated with a cross section of Americans. It’s really channeling these kinds of basic values of the society.  

Now, it’s doing a lot of other things. It’s – 10 percent of the frames are about gender, feminist politics, right.  The leaders  may have been intentional about including women’s voices, representing the most marginal elements of the of the black (inaudible) LGBTQ-plus adherents, transgender adherents. And so we see that these frames matter as well. That was just not a part   of the classic Civil Rights Movement. The society in the 1950s was incredibly repressive, both along the lines of gender and LGBTQ-plus identities, and so you wouldn’t expect that to be there. But the Black Lives Matter movement is making a conscientious effort to make those kinds of representational claims, but overwhelmingly, what they’re doing is they’re making claims through the lens of individual rights in American society.  

I also looked at what kinds of actions they urge, right. You hear on some media outlets that, oh, the Black Lives Matter movement is violent, they’re urging violence against police. So we wanted to check that. And so what we found is that the overwhelming majority of tweets in this sample that we studied from the first wave were urging people to do things like register to vote, vote for a candidate that’s pro-racial equity, right? Only 12 percent actually even urge people to go out and protest, right. They’re much more engaged with the kind of mainline political activism. Also, of that 18,708 tweets from six Black Lives Matter organizations, I found a total of zero that advocated for violence against the police or any state authorities in the United States.  

The public opinion studies – we wanted to know: Do black people like the BLM movement and do black people think the movement is effective? And so we ran an online internet poll of 815 African Americans in 39 states and Washington D.C. between September 2017 and October 2017. And what we found is that the movement is overwhelmingly popular in the black community. Eighty-one percent of respondents see the BLM movement as at least moderately effective; 56 percent see it as effective for LGBTQ rights; 63 percent thought it was effective at protecting Americans from police brutality; and 68 percent thought it was effective at protecting the rights of African Americans to vote, right. And so this really tipped us off to something that, okay, so when they’re on Twitter, they’re talking about voting, and they’re talking about sort of systemic actions. Then when you ask on the demand side what do black Americans think that the movement is doing, well, they’re saying they’re protecting our right to vote, they’re doing all these broad things. They’re not just doing disruptive protest.  

And so that led us to ask, like, how is this affecting the political activism of black Americans in both movements and in the electoral realm? And so that’s what we wanted to look at with the political behavior studies: What motivates black people to participate in the movement? And so these are simple – this is a simple point diagram of coefficients from a sort of statistical technique known as regression analysis, right. And so the only thing that you have to think about is all of these variables here are independent variables that should drive people to participate in protests. And so what this means is that zero is a kind of baseline level of participation, non-participation. When you get to the right side of zero, these estimates are driving positive participation. On the left side of zero, they’re driving negative participation.  

And so what’s so interesting is that gender, which we thought was going to be a big positive driver of participation, is actually a negative driver in this sample, right, and we think that there’s a lot of reasons for that. I mean, protests can be incredibly dangerous spaces, not just from police but from male protesters as well, right, so – we also think that women take a much greater role in the kinds of organizing work that comes after movements than the actual on-the-ground protests, right.  

The older you are, the less likely you are to participate. The higher your income and education levels, the less likely you are to have participated in a Black Lives Matter protest. Now, that’s  

really interesting, because what social science research tells us is that participation in the black community is typically more acute if you have a higher income and a higher education level. So we think that income levels and education levels and gender are factors that lead people to kind of say maybe going down to these areas and protesting are less good ideas than supporting in other ways.  

And so what we’ve also found is that overwhelmingly, the people who are participating in the protests are in bottom half of the income distribution of black America, right, and so this substantiates what Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, a really famous and prolific sociologist and African American studies scholar at Princeton – she argued that part of what’s happening with the Black Lives Matter movement is that it’s a movement about class dynamics, right, that, like, working class people are rising up against their conditions. And so I found evidence to support that. I think that that might also be why so many young Millennials are joining the movement, because they are suffering from sort of incredible inequalities under our capitalist system as well, and so they relate to a lot of stories about the movement, right?  

And so let me wrap up here by just showing a couple more slides. What’s been the electoral impact? I’ve referenced my colleague and coauthor Tabitha Bonilla. She and I did field – we did surveys in Georgia during the runoff elections between Senator Warnock and Ossoff and their Republican opponents. And what we found is that when we exposed Democratic-leaning white voters in Georgia to four frames about the 2020 Senate runoff trying to boost their mobilization for the Democrats, what we found is that the most potent thing in making white Democrats in Georgia want to go to the polls was a frame that said that John Ossoff was highly supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement, right – not a frame saying he’s going to give you a COVID check, not a frame saying he’s going to reduce your taxes, not a frame saying he’s going to, like, help you with education, right. The frame that was most impactful was saying that he is going to raise the standard for Black Lives Matter, right.  

And so what this all means is that it’s further evidence like we saw on the ground that Black Lives Matter is now turning to politics, right, trying to run adds to impact campaigns, having voter registration drives. We know that the group Black Voters Matter, right, is a Black Lives Matter-affiliated group that had a huge impact, along with Stacey Abrams’ group, in Georgia, right. And so for the future of the movement, what’s going to be really impactful is how well are they going to be able to continue this foray into electoral politics, how well are they going to manage the attacks that are coming from the right, laws to limit their ability to protest and organize, and how like – how successfully will they partner with allies in government who want to promote racial equity.  

And I will stop there with a simple thank you and stop sharing my screen, and we can transition to the Q&A.  

MODERATOR: Thank you, professor, for that excellent overview of your current research in this area. We will now begin the Q&A portion of the briefing. As a reminder, you can raise your hand in the participant field or submit a question in the chat box. And as we’re waiting for a question, I wanted to ask you, Dr. Tillery, if maybe you could expand a little more on how the Chauvin verdict is viewed by Black Lives Matter and what this verdict means for future racial equity efforts.  

MR TILLERY: Yeah. I mean, I think the Chauvin verdict is the fruit of the Black Lives Matter movement, right? So this – and that’s what I really wanted to show, the connection between the Black Lives Matter movement and the traditional classic movement of the civil rights spaces that that – the classic movement saw all this as one bucket of activity, right, sort of organizing to strip the Jim Crow laws away, mobilizing against police brutality. I mean, there were police brutality – there was a police brutality case in Selma that was part of the reason that people wanted to mobilize, right, because you can’t register to vote, you can’t be on juries, right?  

And so what we saw with that jury in Minneapolis in my view was the results of five years of a heightened consciousness on the part of Americans because of all of the multifaceted activism of the Black Lives Matter movement. And so I think that this will encourage them to continue, that they are – and again, who is the “they,” right? I mean, this movement is happening in 3,000 localities across America, right? So it’s just hard to pin down, like, what the movement thinks, right?  

But from what I’ve been reading of activists, this is going to propel them to continue to do the work, right? Now the hard thing for them is that the question of abolition – abolishing the police – is still a very hard sell in an American society. Like, getting to a conviction for George Chauvin* and getting to the main policy agenda item of abolishing the police is a big leap, right? I mean, the police have only been successfully abolished in one city in America – Camden, New Jersey, right? And that was done because the department had been found to be corrupt, so they abolished it and they immediately reconstituted it. So – and then when we’ve run surveys of black Americans, like, even most surveys show that black Americans don’t want an abolition of the police, right?  

Now, so what’s the middle position? The middle position is defunding the police. And so I think that there are a lot of people across the political spectrum that think we’re spending way too much on our organized police forces. That’s money that takes away from parks and schools and medical care in our public system. We are spending way too much on police abuse cases. You go to the city of Chicago, they’re paying out $15-, $20-, $30-million settlements for police abuse at a time when budgets are tight. My research shows that there are a lot of Americans, including white Americans, that when you frame it to them like, “Should we be spending less money on police so we could spend it on other services”, that’s overwhelmingly popular, right?  

And I think the Democratic Party is really missing an opportunity. I mean, the kind of old guard, the Clinton era, they say, “Oh, when you say defund the police, it scares away moderate white voters in the suburbs.” Just the opposite. That’s not true. A lot of those voters say, “Yeah, we are spending way too much on these police settlements.” And so that’s going to be – if the BLM movement can recalibrate and figure out those kinds of dynamics that I’m finding in my research, I think that there’s a great potential for there to be coalition politics in Congress that will move a lot of the stuff forward. And I do think that they are figuring this out.  

MODERATOR: Thank you for that. Your research on the electoral impact of Black Lives Matter in the 2020 elections is quite interesting. I wonder if you might venture to predict what role racial equity issues might play in the 2022 midterms.  

MR TILLERY: Yeah. I mean, I think that it’s going to play a huge role, and I think that it’s all going to be up to the Democratic Party. Are they going to follow President Biden and Vice President Harris’ lead and sort of lean into racial equity as a policy position for the party? Are they going to have their eye on future voters? Americans under 18 are already majority Latino, Asian, and black. So by 2022, the size of that share of voters in the Democratic coalition is going to be larger. And then let’s add to that that white Millennials and Gen Zers are overwhelmingly supportive of racial equity policies, right?  

So the Case Foundation found that Millennials cite three big issues – climate change, racial equity, stakeholder capitalism – as their issues. So we’ve got that set of data, then we’ve also got my set of data that are showing that Gen Xers and highly educated affluent suburbs are more sympathetic to racial equity than the Democrats behave as if they are. There’s a great potential to hold the line on the congressional majority in the House and maybe pick up some seats in the Senate. If they run away from the issue as some of the partisans seem to be doing in Congress, right – I mean, the dominant story coming out of November 3rd was Black Lives Matter cost the  Democrats  ( inaudible ) seats in the House. I mean, that’s just nonsense. I mean, the data does not support that.  

I mean, what cost them seats in the House was that they overperformed in 2016 because Mr. Trump wasn’t on the ballot, and then all of Mr. Trump’s people came back out in 2020 – I mean, I’m sorry, they overperformed in 2018 because Mr. Trump wasn’t on the ballot. In 2020, he is on the ballot, so that drove up his share. And we are a closely divided country because of the gerrymandering, but it’s very clear where the future trends are for these electoral dynamics. But can you convince septuagenarian, octogenarian leaders in the Congress that everything that they learned from their playbook from the Clinton era about the kind of moderate white swing voter is wrong, right? I mean, I just don’t know that that’s going to happen, but, I mean, Mr. Biden has certainly figured this – President Biden has certainly figured this out, and I think that they need to follow his lead on these things, honestly.  

MODERATOR: All right. We’ll do one last call for questions, although I don’t see any hands raised today. We have a quiet group today. Oh, I see a hand raised. Pearl Matibe, if you’d like to unmute yourself and ask your question.  

QUESTION: Yes, good afternoon, Mr. Tillery. Thank you for being available. Regarding the whole Black Lives Matter, it crossed over into foreign persons when a South African was shot in Honolulu just this month. I believe 911 is still to release kind of, like, the details of what happened there as to who was at fault. But can you talk a little bit – I think they used a taser gun on this individual. He was a 29-year-old black man.  

When and how do you see the Biden administration operationalizing effective reform in the criminal justice system? I mean, do you think or do you even foresee – just as a hypothetical example, I’ll just use way back in the Reagan administration, when Reagan was trying to solve the immigration crisis, he put out some type of an amnesty, right? Do you see something similar or some type of an amnesty, say, African Americans 25 and younger from such-and-such a year and do some type of blanket amnesty? Like, where – at what point, to try and bridge and get some unity going and some reform of the criminal – where do you see this thing going?  

MR TILLERY: I’m sorry. So by reform of criminal justice system, do you mean combat mass incarceration, like —  

QUESTION: In particular – in particular, but then, of course, given the fact that there are a significant number of young African Americans of particular age range that may have benefited from different outcomes in their cases, so how do you – I’m trying to – I just was trying to figure out if there was maybe a way where there could be some type of forgiveness and educating them and helping them in a different way and being more creative in how you innovate —  

MR TILLERY: Yes, yes.  

QUESTION: — what you do for them as opposed to hey, this is – you end up incarcerated for 10, 16 years. I mean, where is this going? Where is this thing going?  

MR TILLERY: Yeah.  

QUESTION: And as I said, a South African was killed by officers, so – just this month in Hawaii.  

MR TILLERY: Yeah, so, I mean, I’ll talk about the first – the issue of the killing. So, I mean, I think that many of our African immigrant and African tourists who come and visit the United States are shocked that there’s not an able to – the police forces do not seem to be able to differentiate them from native-born blacks, right? The famous Amadou Diallo case in the 1990s, a Senegalese immigrant who was shot 20 times in New York City when the police asked him to hold up his hands in his – in front of his apartment and he held up a wallet, right?  

And so what we do know is that sort of foreign status does not save you from predations of racist institutions. I mean, that’s absolutely the case, and that’s another argument for fixing the institutions in a globalized world where people of color are the majority, right? And so – and I’ll say the same thing with the Stop AAPI Hate movement that’s happening, all of our debates over immigration. America will be a majority minority society by 2035, and it is unconscionable for us to have an overwhelmingly white police power that doesn’t equally value lives of color, and so I think that that’s got to be signaled from the top. I believe that President Biden and Vice President Harris have been doing that consistently. I’m going to say in my role as presidential historian, President Biden’s rhetoric on these issues has been a different order. We’ve never had a president use the construct of racial equity in the way that President Biden has, right? And so (inaudible) able to put legislative heft behind it in the way that President Johnson, who’s probably our most successful president on racial justice issues, was able to do, right?  

But in the field of policing and criminal justice reform, President Biden does not have the powers that he has in, say, immigration. Our constitutional structure gives him wide deference on immigration like it did to Reagan when he created that amnesty program. It does not in policing. Policing is controlled in our federal system at the state and local level. And so he’s going to have to find ways to get buy-in at those levels, or he’s going to have find ways that he can use the oversight of the Justice Department to exact reforms, and I think that that’s precisely what Attorney General Garland is doing by reviewing Minneapolis’ policing practices. I expect him to be back in Chicago looking at consent decrees all over the place. And so that’s what he can  

do and I think he is doing that, but it’s not going to be the kind of sweeping changes that you could get in, say, in immigration reform because he just doesn’t have the power, unfortunately.  

MODERATOR: Thank you. I’d now like to call on Edward Keenan from the Toronto Star, Canada. Ed, if you can unmute yourself and ask your question.  

QUESTION: Great. Can you hear me okay?  

MODERATOR: Yes, we can.  

QUESTION: Okay. Jen and Alvin, thanks so much for doing this. So, obviously, as you’ve said, the George Floyd murder sort of galvanized public opinion and public participation in a way that many Americans will never be able to remember ever happening before. And when I was in Minneapolis this week awaiting the verdict, and I’ve never been in a place where there was such a sense that the paths of history depended on the announcement that was coming in a single moment – right – that something significant for the country, like, turned on this decision. And I’m just wondering if you can comment on the significance of the Chauvin verdict and the events in Minneapolis this week for the broader, like, movement, because I did also hear from people some skepticism, especially with Daunte Wright’s funeral just two days later – there was a sense of the more things change, the more they stay the same. So I’m just trying formulate a question, but it’s basically I wonder if you have thoughts on the significance of this week in Minneapolis.  

MR TILLERY: Yeah. I mean, it’s huge, right? I mean, we just have not convicted very many police officers for killing any civilians in our country, let alone for killing a person of color or a black man. One of the other – only other times in recent memory was, again in Minneapolis, where an officer was convicted of killing a woman a few years ago, right? And so it’s significant to get this conviction on all three counts of murder. It’s significant because the thin blue line that the police officers talk about, which many reformers see as an obstacle to promoting changes, cracked, right? We saw half a dozen officers from – including the chief and the lead trainer from the Minneapolis Police Department testify that they thought what Chauvin did was abhorrent and was not part of his training and that he was guilty, right? And that’s a huge victory for the movement for reform, right? And I think that it will be remembered as as significant a moment as President George H.W. Bush trying to use federal civil rights law to prosecute the officers that beat Rodney King, right? Or even more significant, it might be remembered like the Emmett Till turning point in the sort of Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s, right?  

But I’m – you can understand why the activist class, it’s their job to keep pushing for reform. And I always say to my students and my – when I go to do corporate engagements, like, we’re closer to racial equity in America than we’ve ever been – right – but yet, we’re very, very far away. And I think the activists know that. And Daunte Wright’s killing just underscores that for the activists. So they’re not going to take too many victory laps, and they are going to go right back out organizing. And they have a ton of incentive to organize because there’s a crowd in America on the other side of the aisle from Mr. Biden that is apparently trying to make it more difficult to hold police officers accountable, trying to make it more difficult for Black Lives Matter activists to vote, trying to make it more difficult for people of color and young, urbane,   and highly educated whites in the suburbs to vote by passing suppression bills, right? And so they don’t have time to kind of celebrate, right? They do have to continue to mobilize, because what Mr. Trump unleashed in his campaign, the first wave, everyone said, oh, Black Lives Matter, great. Let’s put these three women on the covers of Cosmopolitan and Vogue and celebrate their activism. Because there wasn’t any evidence that it was changing politics or shaping outcomes, right? So it’s easy to celebrate something that’s novel and seems progressive when it’s not a threat to your power.  

Mr. Trump rightly identified that the Black Lives Matter movement is a threat to the white supremacist order that still holds power in a lot of corners in our federal system in America. And so – and now we have a president at the head of that system that’s saying that white supremacy is wrong. He’s saying that racial equity will be the policy of his government. And that creates incentives for the other side to mobilize against it. And so Black Lives Matter has got to be ready for that. And they’ve got to ratchet it up if they’re going to be successful.  

And so that’s my comment on the impact. But it’s – it was a monumental day in American history when that verdict came down.  

MODERATOR: Okay. Our next question is submitted in the chat field from Jan Kaliba with Czech Radio, in Czech Republic. And I will read the question: “How would you explain the Black Lives Matter idea and aims to an average citizen of Central Europe, nearly 100-percent majority white country without colonial history, but with communist history? For example, the Czech Republic, where people don’t know much about Black Lives Matter and tend to view it as some kind of left-wing or radical movement.”  

MR TILLERY: Yeah. Well, I mean, it certainly is both of those to the extent that it is progressive in the sense – in the way that Dr. King was a left-wing radical movement. I mean, that chart that I showed in the beginning, 101 – 81 years of a white supremacist order in this country means that promoting democracy for everyone is left-wing and radical. So I would say, yeah, that’s how I would start to explain it.  

And then I would ask them to step out of their own racial lens and valence of who they are and try to develop empathy for people who are abused by state power, and the communist history – I’m certain – would be a bridge to that empathy, right? So pretend that the Black Lives Matter people aren’t black, and that they’re just people who are suffering from state violence, and they are demanding that the state be accountable for every individual life in America, and that people be given free, fair treatment by state authorities, particularly those that have the power to kill you.  

And so once you do that exercise, it’s easy to transpose to the question of those in the Czech Republic: What if there were extralegal killings of people in distressed neighborhoods in the country? Wouldn’t it be the moral thing to ask questions of your government, “Why is this happening? And what can we do to prevent it?” And the reality is that black Americans are 3.5 times more likely to be killed by police officers than their white counterparts. Latinos are two times more likely. Black Americans are five times more likely to be stopped by police and searched for contraband than are their white counterparts, even though they’re half as likely to actually have contraband than are their white counterparts.  

And so is that fair, right? And so I think that’s how you should it explain it to your audience.  

MODERATOR: Thank you, Dr. Tillery. I think we’ve now come to the end of our time, so I’ll just turn it back over to you for any final thoughts before we conclude today.  

MR TILLERY: Well, my final thought is that what your international audiences should know is that (inaudible) been three foundings in American history: the founding of 1787 that started the republic, blacks were intimately bound up in that. I myself am descended from men who fought in the American Revolution and got their freedom papers in their (inaudible) county in North Carolina where they had been slaves, right. And so there would be no America without James Armistead Lafayette, who was a black man who spied in the camp of the British and told General Washington that they were coming back to Yorktown with a major armada. And that’s how they were able to defeat the British and make America.  

The Civil War, the second founding, is won because 250,000 black men streamed into the Union army and turned the tide of that war so that the Union could win. As black women were doing the cooking, helping to build the forts, right?  

The third founding was the founding of Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Dr. King, that made this a multiracial, gender-equitable democracy for everyone. Black Lives Matter is leading a fourth founding, which will be a multiracial movement, whereby young people of all ages – young people of all races are coming together and demanding that their elders do better, right? And so I’m just excited to see what happens at the end of that fourth founding. So thank you.  

MODERATOR: On behalf of the U.S. Department of State and the Foreign Press Center, I want to thank Professor Tillery for sharing your expertise and insights today on that – on this critical topic. And that concludes today’s briefing. Thank you very much.  

MR TILLERY: Thank you.  

U.S. Department of State

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Business Law Today

November 2020

Taking a Stand on Racial Justice and Equality

Alan s gutterman.

Oct 29, 2020

• While there is a risk of losing those who may disagree, companies argue that taking a stand is a moral imperative and that the overall, long-term health of the business will improve through stronger personal connections with employees and customers.
• Business leaders need not work in a vacuum while developing the company’s public position on racial injustice as the actions the company ultimately takes in furtherance of its position will necessarily be a collective effort involving everyone in the organization.
• Companies should also be prepared to turn to qualified and experienced outside consultants and advisors to assist in the process, recognizing that existing internal expertise may not be sufficient.

A few weeks ago, we launched a series of articles on the commitments and contributions of business to racial justice and equality. As this is written, almost five months have passed since the death of George Floyd, and the world is awash in public statements by businesses and their leaders, many of which were issued just days or weeks after Floyd’s death. If someone wanted to say something, he or she should have said it by now. Nonetheless, it is important to consider the process of “taking a stand” since words will be closely scrutinized and serve as foundational guidance for all the actions that follow.

Whether or not to take a public stance on political or social issues and on events such as those that have played out following Floyd’s death is often a difficult decision for companies, many of which are concerned about alienating certain groups of customers by associating their brands with “controversial” positions on sensitive issues that are dividing society. However, pressure from employees, consumers, and investors has been building in recent years for business leaders to explain where they stand and how their values are being incorporated into the decisions they are making about products, messaging, their treatment of their workers, and community relationships.

While there is a risk of losing those who may not agree with their positions, companies argue that taking a stand is a moral imperative and that the overall health of the business will improve over the long term as a result of building a stronger personal connection with employees and customers. Floyd’s death and the protests that followed marked a tipping point for many companies, pushing them to go on the record regarding racial injustice. As Netflix explained on Twitter: “To be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter. We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators and talent to speak up.”

Unfortunately, we can be reasonably certain that the events surrounding George Floyd’s death will not be the last time that business leaders need to consider whether to “take a stand” and how it should be done. In those situations, businesses are understandably under pressure to respond quickly. However, it is important to avoid being too reflexive and making public statements that are not supported by solid research and thoughtful dialogue with the company’s own stakeholders. A good deal of the debate and dialogue on what governments, police departments, communities, and businesses should be doing in the wake of George Floyd’s death was focused on systemic racism and racial injustice. A review of the news makes it clear that these are, and will remain, much debated and highly contentious concepts in America. It is also apparent that there are political leaders who concede that Floyd’s killing was wrong while denying that systemic racism exists or is a problem.

While business leaders can, like any other citizen, weigh into that debate, their first obligation is to do the research on their own that is required for them to understand the potential flash points. The landscape is quite broad. Consider one well-known definition of systemic racism offered by Joe Feagin and used in sociology:

Systemic racism includes the complex array of anti-black practices, the unjustly gained political-economic power of whites, the continuing economic and other resource inequalities along racial lines, and the white racist ideologies and attitudes created to maintain and rationalize white privilege and power. Systemic here means that the core racist realities are manifested in each of society’s major parts . . . each major part of U.S. society—the economy, politics, education, religion, the family—reflects the fundamental reality of systemic racism.

Additional arguments and empirical support for the existence of systemic racism and its adverse impact on people of color can be found in a wide range of sources, including surveys compiled by Balko and Cole. Moreover, according to a poll published in June 2020 by Edelman, a public relations firm, nearly two-thirds of Americans, including 57 percent of whites, were “very” or “extremely” concerned about systematic racism. In addition, big majorities of both blacks and whites expressed hostility toward “performative activism,” or posturing in which companies made floury statements but failed to take meaningful actions. The respondents also made it clear that silence was not a good option: Over half of the whites surveyed expected brands to take a stand on racial justice, and over two-thirds of the Republicans who answered said a company’s response to the protests following the George Floyd killing would determine whether its brand kept or gained trust. A June 2020 Harris Poll found that 82 percent of Americans thought that it was either “very” or “somewhat important” for companies to work on making a positive difference on racial equality, and sizable numbers of the respondents called on companies to incorporate their views into advertising, speak out on racial equality, do business with others that share similar standards when it comes to combating racial inequality, and contribute to organizations that combat racism. However, only 21 percent of the respondents to the Harris Poll felt that companies had actually made a “very positive” impact, and many in the survey called out companies for failing to do enough to increase diversity in their leadership or for making meaningful efforts internally to address racial equality.

However, contrary views should also be sought out and considered in order to anticipate objections to actions that may be proposed by political, community, and business leaders. For example, in an essay on lessons for talking about race, racism, and racial justice, The Opportunity Agenda listed several “counternarratives” that commonly appear in discussions regarding racism: “racism is ‘largely’ over or dying out over time,” “people of color are obsessed with race,” and “civil rights are a crutch for those who lack merit or drive.” An op-ed piece published in the Wall Street Journal on June 2, 2020, which was widely circulated on social media, agreed that police officers should be held accountable for using excessive force, but argued that there was no evidence of widespread racial bias. Business leaders should not get too bogged down in arguing each of these points, but they do need to be mindful of what some others might be thinking as they set out to engage in meaningful conversations to develop responses that can be implemented with broad societal support. No statement will be universally accepted, since independent and scientifically based polling continuously identifies different perspectives and experiences between the members of different racial groups and disagreements among them regarding preferred policy solutions.

In its guidance on talking about race, racism, and racial justice, The Opportunity Agenda counseled leading with shared values, including justice, opportunity, community, and equity, all of which are aspirations that should be universally acknowledged regardless of race. The purpose of this approach is not to avoid difficult discussions regarding race, but rather to focus on potential solutions. The Opportunity Agenda also recommended describing how racial bias and discrimination is a problem for everyone in society and prevents society from realizing its full potential. According to surveys cited by The Opportunity Agenda, eight in ten Americans believe that society functions better when all groups have an equal chance in life. Another way to increase engagement with the issues surrounding racial injustice is to remind others of instances in which they may have felt excluded. This is a powerful approach given that there is evidence that six in ten Americans have reportedly felt discriminated against at one time or another on the basis of race, ethnicity, economic status, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, or accent.

In his advice to CEOs and directors on how they can lead on racial injustice, Scott pointed out that, while words alone were not a sufficient response to the situation, a company’s stakeholders, from employees to customers to community members, expect that its leaders will speak out and clarify the company’s position. The tone and content of the messaging will vary, but it should be made clear that the company supports racial justice and is committed to taking tangible and measurable actions to embed equity and diversity into its organizational culture and the actions to be taken with respect to operations and relationships with stakeholders. Like others, Scott argued that statements from company leaders are important cues to everyone in the organization as to what will be expected of them and how they should act.

Although business leaders certainly need to look inward to their own experiences and values while working on the company’s public position on racial injustice, and must settle on a statement that is aligned with their personal values, they need not work in a vacuum. The actions that the company ultimately takes in furtherance of its position will necessarily be a collective effort involving everyone in the organization. The CEO should create a special working group to develop the company’s initial action plans relating to racial justice, ensuring that there is diverse representation in the group who can understand the concerns raised by stakeholders and identify and implement solutions that will truly be seen as responsive by those who have been most pained by past experiences. In addition, leaders should reach out to others who can help them understand the underlying issues and provide feedback on the steps that might be taken in formulating and executing the company’s commitments. Scott recommended that business leaders (i.e., directors and CEOs) seek advice on handling racial inequalities from their peers at other companies, perhaps borrowing from initiatives that those companies have already launched to address the issues the company is facing. Companies should also be prepared to turn to qualified and experienced outside consultants and advisors to assist in the process, recognizing that existing internal expertise may not be sufficient.

The leaders’ initial public statements regarding the company’s position on racial injustice should be amplified in a series of internal events that allow leaders to meet face to face with people from all parts of the organization to discuss the stated position and solicit input on specific initiatives the company should take to fulfill its commitments. These events create an opportunity to reinforce the company’s position, providing employees with ideas about how they should act and the factors they should consider when making decisions during their day-to-day activities. This will also give employees a sense of participation in the process. Employees should be encouraged to share their own experiences of racial injustice, both inside the workplace and outside in the world they live in. However, because many employees may be uncomfortable holding these conversations in a group setting, it is important that the company develop processes that employees can use to share their experiences anonymously. Including people of color as spokespersons for the company’s racial justice initiatives lends credibility to the efforts. Yet, they should not be asked to defend or justify past missteps, nor should they be prevented from explaining their own pain and discomfort.

At the same time as leaders are meeting with employees, engagement should be continued with external stakeholders who can provide insights into how the company has been handling situations in which racial justice issues might arise. For example, consideration should be given to how the company has treated customers (e.g., have there been complaints of racial discrimination against customers, either in how products and services are provided or in the ability of people of color to readily access the company’s products and services?). Dialogue should be undertaken with legitimate representatives of community groups to understand how the company is perceived by those who live and work in the neighborhoods where the company operates. Investors should be consulted and are increasingly likely to insist that their portfolio companies establish and report on specific targets relating to diversity and inclusion. Business leaders should also reach out to partners up and down their value chains to understand their responses to the situation. There might be opportunities to collaborate with these partners on racial justice initiatives. Moreover, companies also need to be certain that they are not exposed to reputational damage from affiliation with businesses that engage in practices that undercut diversity and inclusion.

Alan Gutterman's prolific output of practical guidance and tools for legal and financial professionals, managers, entrepreneurs and investors has made him one of the best-selling individual authors in the global legal...

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EJI supports efforts to locally memorialize documented victims of racial violence and to educate communities about the history of racial injustice.

EJI works with communities to install historical markers that acknowledge lynchings, like this one in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

As a law office, the Equal Justice Initiative has been dedicated to representing clients sentenced to death and condemned to die in prison, challenging inhumane conditions of confinement, and working to expose racial bias in the criminal justice system for more than 30 years. This work has provided a first-hand view of the many ways our nation’s current era of mass incarceration is deeply rooted in America’s history of racial injustice, and has inspired us to launch a project documenting and memorializing the eras of enslavement, racial terror lynching, and segregation. 

Member of Community Remembrance Project Coalition in Chattanooga, Tennessee

That project has yielded research and public education materials—including reports , videos , interactive websites on the history of racial terror lynching and segregation , and our A History of Racial Injustice calendar — along with the groundbreaking Legacy Sites in Montgomery, Alabama .

We also believe it is critical for communities across the country to do the difficult work of unearthing and confronting their own histories of racial injustice, while exploring how that history continues to shape the present. We are honored to support community memorialization work through the Community Remembrance Project, which is organized at the county level. A meaningful aspect of this work is the opportunity for individuals to connect with members of their local community and to examine personal connections to the legacies of racial terror. EJI believes this is most impactful when done locally, allowing participants to look beyond their immediate community ties, while exploring local connections to the narratives of racial terror lynching.

EJI’s Community Remembrance Project supports coalitions in their efforts to memorialize documented victims of racial violence throughout history. The Historical Marker Project erects narrative markers in public locations describing the devastating violence, today widely unknown, that once took place in these locations. Since 2015, the Community Remembrance Project has supported local communities across the country to install more than 80 historical markers, collect soil from approximately 700 locations where racial terror lynchings took place, and judge Racial Justice Essay entries for over 900 high school students.

More than 80 historical markers have been installed in local communities since 2015.

Communities have collected soil from about 700 sites of racial terror lynchings.

More than 900 high school students have submitted Racial Justice Essay entries.

EJI is currently working with over 200 coalitions across the country. The work of these communities is honored in an exhibit at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. These projects and the other engagement efforts help communities to understand the truth of our nation’s history of injustice, to recognize the experiences of Black communities across the generations, and to expose the ways in which the history of racial injustice continues to impact communities today.

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Learn more about EJI's community remembrance work.

We are very proud of the Community Remembrance Project and honored to work alongside community partners throughout the country who are taking on the challenging, necessary work of telling the truth about our history and building a future rooted in justice. Please explore this page for more information and details on how you can get involved.

Lynching in America

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Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror

Explore EJI’s report and microsite on the racial terror lynchings.

More than 4,400 African Americans were lynched across 20 states between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and 1950. Racial terror lynchings were more than just hangings. They involved groups of white people committing acts of fatal violence against African Americans to instill fear in the entire Black community. These lynchings were frequently carried out in broad daylight and perpetrators could expect impunity. Government officials frequently turned a blind eye or condoned the mob violence. This era of racial terrorism shaped the geographic, social, and economic conditions of African Americans, and America as a whole, in ways that are still evident today. 

Lynching and racial violence fueled the forced exodus of millions of Black people as refugees  from the South into urban ghettos in the North and West during the first half of the 20th century and created a social environment where racial subordination and segregation was maintained with limited resistance for decades. Many Black refugees and exiles who fled the American South faced marginalizing and disadvantaged circumstances in the urban North, West and Midwest. Black people who remained in the South faced continued threat, terror, and humiliation rigidly maintained by legalized racial segregation. The violence and terror of lynching created a legacy of racial inequality that has never been adequately addressed in America, and continues to sustain racial injustice and bias. 

County Data Supplement

Find out about racial terror lynchings in your county.

Public acknowledgment of mass violence is essential not only for the victims and survivors, but also for perpetrators and bystanders who suffer from trauma and damage related to their participation in systematic violence and dehumanization.

Many communities where lynchings took place have erected monuments recognizing the Civil War, the Confederacy, and white Southerners’ violent retaking of local power after Reconstruction. But very few monuments or memorials address the history and legacy of lynching, and most victims of lynching have never been publicly acknowledged.

In Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror , EJI characterized and cataloged racial terror lynchings and studied the locations of lynching so community members across the nation could discover their local history. Our report has now been read by thousands of people who have expressed a desire to engage more thoughtfully on what the legacy of lynching represents in America.

Community members gather with EJI material, including our Lynching in America report, at the July 2019 historical marker dedication ceremony in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Eze Amos)

To create greater awareness and understanding about racial terror lynchings, and to begin a necessary conversation that advances truth and reconciliation, EJI is working with communities to commemorate and recognize the traumatic era of lynching by collecting soil from lynching sites across the country and erecting historical markers and monuments in these spaces.  Explore a map of the counties documented in EJI’s research on our interactive microsite. 

We believe that understanding the era of racial terror is critical if we are to confront its legacies in the challenges that we currently face from mass incarceration, excessive punishment, unjustified police violence and the presumption of guilt and dangerousness that burdens many people of color.

Historical Markers

Related Content

Community Historical Marker Project

Explore the communities that have worked with EJI to install historical markers.

The narratives of racial difference created to justify centuries of enslavement persisted long after slavery was formally abolished. Black communities continued to face violent intimidation as Black men, women, and children were lynched for minor social transgressions or for asserting their civil rights, and were assigned a presumption of guilt and criminality. When the era of racial terror lynchings ended in the mid-20th century, it left behind a nation and an American South fundamentally altered by decades of enslavement, cruelty, and systematic community-based violence against Black Americans. These legacies have yet to be fully understood.

As part of our effort to help communities confront and recover from tragic histories of racial violence and terrorism, EJI is joining with communities across the country to install narrative historical markers at the sites of racial terror lynchings. Historical markers are a compelling tool in the creation of a permanent record of racial terror violence that provides everyone in the community exposure to our shared history of racial injustice. EJI’s historical markers detail the narrative events surrounding a specific lynching victim, or group of racial terror lynching victims, and the history of racial terrorism in America.

Through the Historical Marker Project ,  local communities are motivated to confront historical trauma that is both universal and also very specific to the Black experience. EJI’s Historical Marker Projects are led by community coalitions that include individuals representing a diversity of experiences and affiliations in the local community. EJI believes that reckoning with the truth of racial violence that has shaped our communities is essential for healing.

Local community members interested in pursuing a Historical Marker Project should first commit to reading in full EJI’s Lynching in America and Reconstruction in America reports as a foundation for understanding the historical context of racial terror violence. We also strongly encourage community members to plan a visit to the Legacy Sites in Montgomery to further engage with America’s history of racial injustice.

Historical Marker Replicas

An exhibit at the National Memorial for Peace and justice with replicas of historical markers erected across the country.

To recognize the important work of local communities, EJI has created an installation at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, honoring the work of community remembrance coalitions around the country to erect local historical markers commemorating lynching victims. The exhibit includes more than 70 copper replicas of historical markers, each of which provides a detailed narrative about specific racial terror lynchings. This exhibit is a dynamic reflection of local commitments to overcome silence about the legacy of racial injustice, which will continue to grow as communities erect additional markers.

Watch the extraordinary journey of a family and community who overcame a century of silence to expose an American story about hard work and achievement, racial terrorism and exile, and the healing power of truth-telling.

Community Engagement and Education

Get involved.

You can help us change the narrative of racial difference by exploring our public education resources and sharing them with others.

Community members in Franklin County, Kentucky, gather to remember victims of racial terror lynching in their community.

To repair the harms caused as a result of the eras of enslavement, racial terror lynching, segregation, and mass incarceration, we must commit ourselves to building an era of truth and justice. EJI invites communities to contribute to this effort by deepening their understanding of the history of racial injustice and by providing tangible opportunities to participate in restorative truth-telling.

Community education and engagement create opportunities to explain the effects and ongoing legacy of racial terror violence. EJI believes the most impactful educational opportunities occur as a result of engagement in the local community.

EJI has published numerous detailed research reports and public education materials that provide a foundational backdrop for those seeking to understand America’s history of racial injustice.

Research on the Transatlantic Slave Trade examines the ways in which coastal communites from Maine to Texas have been shaped by the kidnapping and trafficking of millions of African people. An additional report on Slavery in America details the importance of the Domestic Slave Trade across the South.

EJI has documented at least 2,000 victims of racial terror lynching from the Reconstruction Era immediately following Emancipation, between 1865 and 1876. The Reconstruction in America report details the failure to commit to establishing racial equality in the aftermath of the Civil War, ultimately setting the stage for an era of racial terror during  which lynching violence was used to terrorize Black communities and maintain racial hierarchy. The Lynching in America report further details at least 4,500 people who were victims of documented racial terror lynchings from 1877 to 1950. An interactive map also details this research, showing the number of documented lynchings in counties across the country.

EJI’s Segregation in America report examines the effects of massive resistance to desegregation by millions of white Americans, particularly during the Civil Rights Movement. An understanding of this opposition is critical to efforts to address the ongoing challenges of racial injustice.

In Annapolis, Maryland, in September 2019, hundreds dedicated a historical marker commemorating five African Americans killed in racial terror lynchings.

Community members dedicated two historical markers in Davidson County, Tennessee, in June 2019.

Community members in Newton County, Mississippi, gather to dedicate a marker honoring William Bradford.

E.W. Higgenbottom participates in marker dedication acknowledging the lynching of his father, Elwood Higginbottom, in Oxford, Mississippi, in 1935.

Dr. Bernard Lafayette prays with community members in Selma at the marker dedication of a marker recognizing three victims of racial terror lynching in Dallas County, Alabama.

Racial Justice Essay Contest

EJI sponsors an essay contest for public high school students. Students in grades 9-12 are challenged to research and write an essay reflecting on a historical event and its connections to present-day issues and their lived experiences. EJI selects several winners from across the county and typically awards at least $5,000 in scholarships and prizes. The winners are announced at an awards ceremony held in the community.

Soil Collections

Community Soil Collection Projects provide tangible opportunities to engage and reckon with the legacy of racial terror lynching.

EJI works with communities to collect soil from lynching sites.

In 2015, EJI began working with communities across the country to commemorate and recognize the traumatic era of racial terror by collecting soil from lynching sites. The Community Soil Collection Project provides a tangible way for community members to confront the legacy of racial terror lynchings and to memorialize the Black victims whose lives were lost and the communities impacted by such violence. The Legacy Museum in Montgomery includes an exhibit of 800 jars of soil collected from lynching sites across the country.

In this soil, there is the sweat of the enslaved. In the soil there is the blood of victims of racial violence and lynching. There are tears in the soil from all those who labored under the indignation and humiliation of segregation. But in the soil there is also the opportunity for new life, a chance to grow something hopeful and healing for the future. –Bryan Stevenson, EJI Executive Director

The Legacy Museum displays 800 soil collections from around the country.

Community members in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, gathered in November 2017 for a soil collection ceremony to honor the life of Zachariah Walker, who was lynched in 1911.

Soil collection in Orange County, Florida, in September 2018.

Hundreds of people gathered at the Douglas County Courthouse in Omaha, Nebraska, to remember the September 1919 lynching of Will Brown.

Other Community Education Efforts

• Hosting community forums (panel discussions and small group dialogue) exploring current racial disparities and potential reforms
• Film and documentary screenings
• Art exhibits and performances
• Community book readings and discussions
• Group visit to the Legacy Sites

Visit EJI’s Legacy Sites in Montgomery

The Legacy Sites

Plan Your Visit

Come to Montgomery, Alabama, for an immersive journey through American history

Legacy Museum

Established in 2018, the Legacy Museum explores the history of racial inequality and its relationship to a range of contemporary issues from mass incarceration to police violence.

The Legacy Museum examines the development of narratives of racial difference beginning with the Transatlantic Slave Trade, through eras of lynching, segregation, and present-day mass incarceration. It offers a rare opportunity for visitors to explore the history and legacy of racial injustice in the United States through detailed research and presentation of first-person narratives through visual and interactive exhibits.

National Memorial for Peace and Justice

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice provides a sacred space for truth-telling and reflection about racial terrorism and its legacy.

The memorial recognizes the over 4,500 documented racial terror lynchings that occurred across the United States between 1877 and 1950. Additional memorial sites honor documented victims of racial terror violence from the Reconstruction Era (1865-1876) and during the 1950s. The names of individual victims are engraved on over 800 steel monuments. In the six-acre park surrounding the memorial is a field of identical monuments, alphabetized by county and state.

Because there is a path to recovery and reconciliation when we tell the truth about our history in public, acknowledging racial harm in public spaces is a critical first step in racial reconciliation. We must address oppressive histories by honestly and soberly recognizing the pain of the past. The National Memorial concretizes the victims of racial terror lynchings in our national consciousness and makes our national landscape a more honest reflection of the history of America. We cannot repair what we cannot name.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to put up a historical marker.

The timeline for putting up a historical marker varies depending on your coalition’s ability to get site approval for the marker and EJI’s capacity. While a marker project often takes six months to a year to complete, we are limited in the number of marker projects we can take on at one time.

How much does a historical marker cost?

EJI provides all markers to each Coalition at no cost. We ask communities to assist with finding a site for the marker and to plan the unveiling of the marker, but EJI will handle the logistics of shipping and producing the marker.

How do I learn more about a lynching in my community?

Please refer to our County Data Supplement to find out about lynchings in your county. During the process of erecting historical markers, the EJI team provides research support and additional details about specific documented racial terror lynchings.

Who do I contact about my research inquiry/request?

If you have a specific inquiry, you can reach out to [email protected]  and we will be in touch as soon as we can. Please note that due to our limited capacity, our team prioritizes research support for ongoing marker projects. We also welcome outreach from descendants of lynching victims regarding additional research and memorialization efforts.

How many people are needed to form a coalition to begin a historical marker project?

While there is no minimum number of people required, we encourage you to reach out broadly across the county and ensure that a variety of communities, perspectives, and experiences are represented. Involvement by local government is not required, and historical markers have typically been installed without government sponsorship. For additional guidance on forming a local coalition, please review our Community Remembrance Project informational booklet .

Related Articles

Community Partners with EJI to Dedicate Historical Marker in Newton County, Mississippi

Community Dedicates Historical Marker in Leavenworth, Kansas

EJI’s Community Remembrance Project Installs Historical Marker in Frankfort

EJI Partners Across the Country Dedicate Markers Recognizing Lynchings

Learn more about other projects

Racial Justice and Equality

The question of racial justice and equality in the US has been manifested by a distinct process that can be tracked in the history of legislative actions aimed at eradicating discriminatory tendencies and building up a non-discriminant society. This issue must be investigated seriously, and answers to why this problem has persisted for so long despite implementing many policies should be sought. The present paper explores contemporary American debates about racial discrimination and the inequities resulting from it. It analyzes how modern economic and political aspects promote race differentiation that prevents minority groups from gaining access to the social goods supplied by state authority.

The central issue of this investigation is: What are the reasons that cause racial disparities to remain prevalent in American society despite enforcing and adapting laws aimed at promoting social justice, and what should be done to solve this problem? In responding to this question, the thesis posits that the continuation of such disparities is triggered by a series of socio-political and economic dynamics that specifically relate to disadvantaged groups’ equitable access to social goods in contemporary society. Despite this, efforts to enhance racial justice and equality have continued to make strides. The claim sets up an extensive exploration of the various elements that perpetuate racial disparity in the US.

Equity in Higher Education

With time, the debate on equal opportunity in universities has shifted to new opportunities and obstacles to redressing racial inequities. This study provides a critical analysis of the intricacy of equity and how it relates to the issue of racial justice within the sphere of higher education. Despite the widespread acceptance of the term “Equity,” more and more people have begun to worry about potentially losing the idea’s historical significance – which revolves around the pursuit of racial balance (Bensimon 96). This is particularly relevant to the most recent transformation within college education in the country, where actual impartiality is under threat through the eradication of ethnicity as one of the critical factors. Additionally, the concept of equitability is becoming depowered by its cooption as it diverges from its aim for racial justice. Racial inequity demands that society acknowledge the chronic background of equality reforms in the essential social situation. Colorblind reforms underscore the point that a reassessment is necessary because not all the underlying determinants of racial disparities are addressed. Restoring “equity” has become a social urgency rather than a linguistic demand. It emphasizes how the issue of racial justice is linked to equality to provide meaning for the concept in a new way.

This social criticism directly correlates with the study issue, thus proving its essence in racial justice and equality. The sociopolitical lens allows the examination of the structural problems that perpetuate racial inequalities when analyzing inequality in higher education. “Equity, once viewed suspiciously as racially divisive and associated with the activism of social justice movements that academic purists disdain as “advocacy” work, is now being enthusiastically embraced on the academic scene” (95). This perspective extends our understanding of socio-political processes, challenging established views and revealing structural mechanisms leading to inequality. This sociopolitical analysis is confirmed as an essential part of the study in general through the utilization of the CRAP test. Its currency in terms of how much it reflects current discourse on race and reflects on its significance as a tool to measure racial disparity. Legitimate, it contributes toward a better understanding of equity and provides an opportunity to discuss racial and class-based exploitation through educational institutions’ discourse in society. These racial imbalances persist, and sociopolitical studies on equality in lower and higher education help understand why this is so. Specifically, this is a part of a broader political conversation that explores how to redefine the term ” equity” and use it as the basis for transformation (Bensimon 98). Besides language, this barrier will have a social and political thrust that pushes down academic walls and creates lasting change in higher education.

School Desegregation

Several court decisions, especially Milliken v. Bradley, still make racial equality difficult within educational efforts. This theory posits that although efforts were made to eliminate the racial chasm in education through Milliken, it resulted in a cyclical perpetuation of the racial inequality that has always existed since then. “…competing interests of black equality and white freedom were central to Milliken and remain fundamental to the question of school desegregation in multiracial yet racially isolated times” (Horsford 3). In particular, historical studies show how Millikan’s impact remains with us today as we struggle to achieve racial equality through neighborhood school revival, local control, and school choice. Analyzing the long-term effects of desegregation measures depends on reviewing the Milliken case’s history. The problematic issues can only be solved by identifying their causal factors, making it possible to develop effective interventions. The main point of this argument is to remind us that the socio-political factors existing after Milliken and leading to racial differences in education outcomes cannot be dismissed. While thought-provoking statements from this historical study exist, we must also take note of the bias that might be involved in arguments favoring this effort to equalize the interests between the advantaged and the disadvantaged groupings. Hence, this calls for a well-rounded and comprehensive approach to tackling the deeply entrenched racial disparities in the educational system. For instance, desegregation laws illustrate why legislative interference fails to dismantle the sociopolitical structures that uphold inequality. Any meaningful progress in this regard requires a thorough appreciation of how the revival of local governance can affect neighborhood schools.

It does not imply that apart from physical barriers, there must be complete reforms in the educational systems and processes for some degree of equal treatment among students with disabilities and non-disabled students. In addition, it emphasizes the necessity for re-evaluating more extensive normative social principles that formulate the framework of the education system. This is evident by the fact that neighborhood schools have gained ground. According to the historical documents, these imply local control and school options rather than racial equality. However, closing the racial achievement gap between blacks and whites goes above just adherence to the law; it involves resisting other cultural presumptions whose intentions may be neutral but end up promoting racial disparity (7). In other words, everything should be included in an all-out response to the school desegregation case known as the Milliken affair. However, these legislative interventions can only partially address the existing racial disparity in our schools. The radical process entails reviewing the political setup of a society, amending its norms, and being persistent in overcoming ingrained attitudes. Nevertheless, these legacies are not so easily reversed; this is why systematic measures need to be employed to address the question of authentic diversity and integration among students in education.

Legal Framework and Status Hierarchies

Achieving racial justice in the criminal justice system involves balancing social order and advancing legal rights. Great strides have been taken concerning the legal environment, but real achievement has yet to be realized regarding resolving status hierarchies. “In assessing the movement for same-sex marriage, advocates, politicians, and journalists compared the fight for marriage equality to the mid-twentieth century movement for education equality, characterizing the former as a new front in civil rights” (James 202). Hence, considering some cases, this study reveals perspectives on hierarchies in issues like marriage equality and school integration. It emphasizes that legal triumphs do not guarantee accurate equity, for they disregard consented assumptions about status disparities. In the areas of gay marriage and school desegregation, it is realized that hierarchy can only be broken down by force. In such a process, inequality might be nurtured to discard legal victories that lack sound comprehension of the status dynamic. It will principally examine neglected beliefs that have sustained some other positions, including heterosexuals as well as whites.

Status inequality should easily be torn down, so the legal system needs to be scrutinized for this. This basis for legal doctrines and attempts ought to be on policies and policies that lie under equity-promoting policies and policy. Nevertheless, these wins become symbolic and irrelevant if they do not address issues like status relations that create different statuses among people in society. “. The interaction of law and societal status remains undertheorized” (201). This argument extends social reflection about the law, which is necessary enough to overturn the traditional hierarchical perception. However, a holistic approach must be adopted beyond legal mechanisms because legal frameworks and the cultural values and attitudes that inform these frameworks are inextricable. This type of question has something to do with education because it will change how people think, leading to changes in their social norms. In summation, what constitutes a substantive legalism approach to attaining racial justice lies beyond mere interrogations on the status or class systems and the power structures that affect our societies.

Evolution of U.S. Laws and Racial Equity

The bond between American legislative history and racial equity is like solving a complex puzzle with contrasting ideas, open-ended questions, and mysteries. However, it is a paradox that some legislation upholds racial domination and inequality even though the laws proclaim freedom and equality by the law. “A bloody Civil War and hard-fought amendments to our Constitution formally incorporated fundamental principles of equal justice into American law” (Jenkins 61). Abolitionism and the constitutional amendments were key milestones towards equality following the Civil War. However, the promises of such legal developments could not be met by African Americans as it exposed the fundamental discrepancy in the law. Structural problems interfere with progressive laws that seek fairness in American racial issues. The peculiar nature of American law cannot be ignored, given that historical events have determined it mainly. There were official declarations that still saw racial inequities continue or get worse. This contradiction, however, calls into question the commonly held notion that laws are mere instruments for meting out justice. Instead, it requires taking into account how legal systems inadvertently sustain systemic disadvantages while appearing to support impartiality. The highest discord is always found after the Civil War./ The fact that it took American society several years before civil rights could be achieved speaks volumes about the limit of the legal abolishment of slavery. Analysis of this historical paradox enables us to appreciate the intricacies involved in the relationship between racial equity and law.

Moreover, understanding that equal treatment in the law is yet to be attained prompts examination of existing racial disparities. However, this ongoing conflict has been engraved in the judicial system and is not merely a phenomenon of history. “The lack of either strong civil rights laws or judicial accountability has enabled the perpetuation of a criminal justice system in which racial bias heavily influences policing, prosecution, and sentencing” (63). This awareness requires us to reflect on whether our current legal systems are adequate to address the issues or what hinders the coming about of egalitarian societies. In essence, the strength of this story is drawn mainly from its numerous sources, which are made up of historical documents, legal rulings, and other publications from organizations. To this end, the argument sidesteps the minutiae associated with each study/analysis while at the same time broadening the complex aspects inherent in the US judicial system. Concerning the central thesis, this argumentative position works like an appeal as racial disparities still prevail. It will involve a review of the implementation, enforcement procedures, and the laws themselves. The advocates for justice based on race look to this focus on inadequacies not corrected as an opening for a revolutionary strategy of change to laws beyond mere political talk shows.

John Rawls’ Theory and Racial Justice

For many years, John Rawls’s theory of justice has been widely referred to as the foundation of moral management, based on the principle of a correct decision arising from “the veil of ignorance” (Matthew 237). However, the application of such a theory in light of racial justice reveals some shortcomings that question whether it can halt racial injustice and rectify past wrongs. For example, in essential terms, Rawls’ theory claims that there should be a priori principle of justice formulated without knowing an individual’s specific features covered by a veil of ignorance, and therefore, racial discrimination will automatically be forbidden (237). Nevertheless, their utopia is flawed because real-world racism is not as simple a phenomenon of color mixing as they envision it. Utopia is an environment in which individuals should determine other people’s races without knowing that they belong to particular races themselves. However, a theoretical curtain of ignorance cannot wash down the racial element in the administration of justice because society systems are corrupted by embedded systemic bias and racial hostility that has been there throughout history. The analysis raises doubts about its applicability in overcoming racial discrimination. Rawls’s concept of justice stems from the proposition that men would naturally come up with equitable notions in the absence of racial awareness. On the other hand, this idealized point of view fails to take into account the deeply rooted discrimination and prejudice inherent in societal systems. Whereas racial inequity persists, the actual practical effects of racial inequality remain evident, and therefore, Rawls’ analysis is not able to undo this intricate structure.

Furthermore, one can see, in assessing its impact on historical racist oppression, the time element of the theory presents itself. Unlike Rawls’s approach, it needs more instruments to confront the historical legacies of injustice and prejudice. A fictitious starting point is based on ignoring the consequences of past misdeeds. In practice, though, redressing historical oppressions calls for a more prosperous and more contextualized account of Rawls’ ideal theory that is deficient of that. The notion of FEO is worthy but has severe flaws regarding race relations (244). As per Rawls ‘ philosophy, opportunities lead to fairness and, therefore, fair outcomes; however, FEO implementation does not mean the elimination of structural barriers that uphold racial disparity in a culturally racist society. About the historical context of racial discrimination, the imperfections of FEO would have to be addressed by addressing the root causes of unequal distribution of services. In its essence, the intricacy of racism evidences the constraints of the Rawlsian concept of justice, even though it might be helpful regarding a purely analytical view of an idealized justice. Shortly, the idea fails to deal with structural prejudices, historical legacies, and the subtle notion of fair opportunities. However, a more sensible approach that considers the present situation is needed to eliminate racial disparity successfully. It is possible that too much emphasis on Rawlsian concepts leads to simplification of the complexity of race justice and hinders progress toward authentic universal social equity. The fact that Rawls’ theory has some inherent defects compared with the principle of racial justice can serve as a wake-up call. However, the philosophical framework of Rawlsian justice fails when providing some practical solutions to persistent issues related to discrimination. If serious strides are to be achieved, we should do away with utopia abstractionism, whereby history is seen and perceived as one-dimensional, and racial prejudice in contemporary society remains complex.

Racial Justice in Coaching

Race discrimination remains an entrenched prejudice in the coaching profession, which has long been considered crucial for both the professional and personal growth of individuals. The article argues that such biases should be identified and corrected because they form the basis for social progress toward racial justice in business ethics. There are racial injustices that continue to ravage the coaching industry, even though it has pledged itself with a dedication towards personal improvement. Therefore, the institutional biases should be addressed by scrutinizing the prevailing industrial practices. This translates to a step beyond the blind approach, which involves dismantling biased approaches informed by real racism issues with consideration of the differences resulting in diverse races. One crucial challenge noted is a high degree of “color blindness” in coaching (Roche and Passmore 23). The result is, therefore, a society that has accepted this kind of racism whereby the structural prejudices go unchecked because of the notion of an egalitarian approach that attempts to ignore racial differences. This barrier can only be crossed through a paradigm shift and moving beyond mere recognition of diversity towards actively stopping discrimination with equal opportunities for all people.

It is further complicated by their need for concern regarding the racial dynamics of professional artifacts and literature associated with the coaching business. The industry argument suggests that the difficulties in dealing with the nuances of racial issues prevent the industry from aggressiveness. Understanding racism also helps recognize the need for inclusion and exploiting the exploitation of triggers, creative ideas, and excellence. Reasoning emphasizes that quantitative steps are essential to creating a multiracial atmosphere in coaching to solve racial bias. Regarding this, the coaching profession must lead the way in removing barriers to the progress of BIPOC coaches (11). Racial prejudices, if not eliminated, will lead to the perpetuation of social injustices in the coaching profession. Teaching industry leadership is another factor in promoting racial equity. Poor representation of leadership hinders progression, thus sustaining racist activities. The assertion argues that it is intelligent to pressure and drive BIPOC individuals toward the top leadership positions in an attempt to rectify the historical errors that have been committed while at the same time promoting diversity within the organization, thus benefiting the company. A new perspective of argumentation regarding racial justice in sports and physical activity administration introduces significant changes within the field. Acknowledging and solving racism in the coaching sector can help support the more critical social goals of achieving racial justice, which include removing discrimination and recognizing the complexities around racial experiences. Ethically, this makes sense in improving professional coaches’ integrity, influence, and contributions towards world equality and inclusion.

This essay contends that even though the US has carried out several interventions historically, these actions alone cannot eliminate systemic inequity and maintain marginalized communities’ unequal access to socio-economic resources due to the intricate combination of modern political and economic factors that uphold it. Despite the legal efforts, the languages of racism persist as well, and society does not address the status inequalities that sustain the racial disparities. On this side of the debate, a holistic strategy should be adopted covering a wide range of issues ranging from acceptable detailed research on egalitarianism in postsecondary education to follow-up of important judicial decisions and the development of American law. Such interventions should not only focus on law but question existing myths, promote diversity, and tear down status hierarchies. Incorporating various perspectives underscores that continuous conversation, interrogation, and commitment to adjusting social norms towards developing a more substantive reality of racial justice is necessary for the world to be in the future where race equality exists as a fact, not a dream.

Works Cited

Bensimon, Estela Mara. “Reclaiming Racial Justice in Equity.”  Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning , vol. 50, no. 3-4, July 2018, pp. 95–98, https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2018.1509623.

Horsford, Sonya Douglass. “Social Justice for the Advantaged: Freedom from Racial Equality Post-Milliken.”  Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education , vol. 118, no. 3, Mar. 2016, pp. 1–18, https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811611800305. Accessed 7 Dec. 2021.

James, Osamudia.  Carolina Law Scholarship Repository Carolina Law Scholarship Repository Superior Status: Relational Obstacles in Law to Racial Justice and Superior Status: Relational Obstacles in Law to Racial Justice and LGBTQ Equality LGBTQ Equality SUPERIOR STATUS: RELATIONAL OBSTACLES in the LAW to RACIAL JUSTICE and LGBTQ EQUALITY OSAMUDIA JAMES . 2022, scholarship.law.unc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1578&context=faculty_publications.

Jenkins, Alan. “Racial Equity and US Law.”  Health Equity , vol. 7, no. 1, Jan. 2023, pp. 61–69, https://doi.org/10.1089/heq.2022.29022.aje.

Matthew, DC. “Rawls and Racial Justice.”  Politics, Philosophy & Economics , vol. 16, no. 3, July 2017, pp. 235–58, https://doi.org/10.1177/1470594×17717736.

Roche, Charmaine, and Jonathan Passmore.  Racial Justice, Equity and Belonging in Coaching HENLEY CENTRE for COACHING . 2021, assets.henley.ac.uk/v3/fileUploads/Racial-Justice-Equity-and-Belonging-in-Coaching.pdf. Accessed 3 Dec. 2022.

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Racial Justice Creative Arts & Essay Contest

The Prince George’s County Lynching Memorial Project is pleased to announce a Racial Justice Essay and Creative Arts Contest open to Prince George’s County students in grades 9-12. Scholarships totaling $4,000 or more will be awarded to winning participants.

Submissions will be received from December 1 – February 29, 2024. Entries must be original works that shed light on an historical or present-day racial injustice. Some suggested topics are listed below. Instructions

Original entries may take the form of essay (prose), poetry/spoken word, and visual arts (e.g., drawing, painting, sculpture, digital art, photography). Written works cannot exceed 1200 words and should be submitted as a Word document or .pdf. Spoken word submissions must be in the form of a Word document or .pdf of the written text, accompanied by a recorded performance. Essays must use credible sources and list the sources or reference materials used.

Visual art entries should be submitted as a high-resolution JPG or PDF image of the original artwork. Sculptures or other three-dimensional entries should be accompanied by 2-4 photos providing multiple views of the work.

All submissions must be accompanied by a completed student entry form and a permission form signed by a parent/legal guardian if the student is under the age of 18. Submissions and forms should be uploaded at Racial Justice Creative Arts Contest – Prince George’s County Lynching Memorial Project (pgclmp.org) by midnight of February 29, 2024. Submissions are limited to one entry per student.

Previous winners of the PGCLMP racial justice creative arts contest and the essay contest supported by the Equal Justice Initiative are not eligible to apply for this contest.

To submit your work: https://forms.gle/4StMsquizdqCisRP8

Announcement of Winners

Scholarship awards will be disbursed among winners for the best essay, poetry/ spoken word,  and visual arts submissions and will be announced in April 2023.

Suggested Topics:

• Lynchings in Prince George’s County or nationwide
• The Georgetown University Sale of Enslaved People
• Environmental Racism
• White Supremacy/White Power Groups
• The Struggle to Desegregate Prince George’s County Public Schools
• Segregation in Sports
• Housing Discrimination
• Racial Disparities in Digital Access and its Impact on Quality of Education
• Interactions With Police in Prince George’s County or nationwide
• The Legacy of Emmett and Mamie Till-Mobley
• The School to Prison Pipeline
• Disparities in Health and Healthcare 
• Historical/Intergenerational trauma 
• Civil rights heroes (champions in Maryland and Prince George’s County
• Voting Rights
• Intersectional Trauma
• Bias in College Admissions Tests, e.g., SAT

Sources.  These sources may help as a starting place for identifying and understanding some racial justice issues. 

Lynchings in Maryland — Maryland Lynching Memorial Project (mdlynchingmemorial.org)

Home (eji.org)  .  This is the Equal Justice Initiative site which includes reports on lynching, criminal justice reform, and other topics.  

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How the Word is Passed. A Reckoning of the History of Slavery Across America.  (2021). Clint Smith.

Records & Recollections: Early Black history in Prince George’s County, MD.  (1989). Bianca P. Floyd.  (Check libraries for availability)

On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-first Century. (2007). Sherrilyn I. Ifill.  

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. (2011). Isabel Wilkerson.   Also see  The Great Migration and the power of a single decision | Isabel Wilkerson – Bing video

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. (2017). Richard Rothstein. 

How to Be an Antiracist. (2019). Ibram X. Kendi. 

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Researchers Warn of Potential for Racial Bias in AI Apps in the Classroom

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When ChatGPT was released to the public in November 2022, advocates and watchdogs warned about the potential for racial bias. The new large language model was created by harvesting 300 billion words from books, articles and online writing, which include racist falsehoods and reflect writers’ implicit biases. Biased training data is likely to generate biased advice, answers and essays. Garbage in, garbage out. 

Researchers are starting to document how AI bias manifests in unexpected ways. Inside the research and development arm of the giant testing organization ETS, which administers the SAT, a pair of investigators pitted man against machine in evaluating more than 13,000 essays written by students in grades 8 to 12. They discovered that the AI model that powers ChatGPT penalized Asian American students more than other races and ethnicities in grading the essays. This was purely a research exercise and these essays and machine scores weren’t used in any of ETS’s assessments. But the organization shared its analysis with me to warn schools and teachers about the potential for racial bias when using ChatGPT or other AI apps in the classroom.

AI and humans scored essays differently by race and ethnicity

“Take a little bit of caution and do some evaluation of the scores before presenting them to students,” said Mo Zhang, one of the ETS researchers who conducted the analysis. “There are methods for doing this and you don’t want to take people who specialize in educational measurement out of the equation.”

That might sound self-serving for an employee of a company that specializes in educational measurement. But Zhang’s advice is worth heeding in the excitement to try new AI technology . There are potential dangers as teachers save time by offloading grading work to a robot .

In ETS’s analysis, Zhang and her colleague Matt Johnson fed 13,121 essays into one of the latest versions of the AI model that powers ChatGPT, called GPT 4 Omni or simply GPT-4o . (This version was added to ChatGPT in May 2024, but when the researchers conducted this experiment they used the latest AI model through a different portal.)  

A little background about this large bundle of essays : Students across the nation had originally written these essays between 2015 and 2019 as part of state standardized exams or classroom assessments. Their assignment had been to write an argumentative essay, such as “Should students be allowed to use cell phones in school?” The essays were collected to help scientists develop and test automated writing evaluation.

Each of the essays had been graded by expert raters of writing on a 1-to-6 point scale with 6 being the highest score. ETS asked GPT-4o to score them on the same six-point scale using the same scoring guide that the humans used. Neither man nor machine was told the race or ethnicity of the student, but researchers could see students’ demographic information in the datasets that accompany these essays.

GPT-4o marked the essays almost a point lower than the humans did. The average score across the 13,121 essays was 2.8 for GPT-4o and 3.7 for the humans. But Asian Americans were docked by an additional quarter point. Human evaluators gave Asian Americans a 4.3, on average, while GPT-4o gave them only a 3.2 – roughly a 1.1 point deduction. By contrast, the score difference between humans and GPT-4o was only about 0.9 points for white, Black and Hispanic students. Imagine an ice cream truck that kept shaving off an extra quarter scoop only from the cones of Asian American kids. 

“Clearly, this doesn’t seem fair,” wrote Johnson and Zhang in an unpublished report they shared with me. Though the extra penalty for Asian Americans wasn’t terribly large, they said, it’s substantial enough that it shouldn’t be ignored. 

The researchers don’t know why GPT-4o issued lower grades than humans, and why it gave an extra penalty to Asian Americans. Zhang and Johnson described the AI system as a “huge black box” of algorithms that operate in ways “not fully understood by their own developers.” That inability to explain a student’s grade on a writing assignment makes the systems especially frustrating to use in schools.

This one study isn’t proof that AI is consistently underrating essays or biased against Asian Americans. Other versions of AI sometimes produce different results. A separate analysis of essay scoring by researchers from University of California, Irvine and Arizona State University found that AI essay grades were just as frequently too high as they were too low . That study, which used the 3.5 version of ChatGPT, did not scrutinize results by race and ethnicity.

I wondered if AI bias against Asian Americans was somehow connected to high achievement. Just as Asian Americans tend to score high on math and reading tests, Asian Americans, on average, were the strongest writers in this bundle of 13,000 essays. Even with the penalty, Asian Americans still had the highest essay scores, well above those of white, Black, Hispanic, Native American or multi-racial students. 

In both the ETS and UC-ASU essay studies, AI awarded far fewer perfect scores than humans did. For example, in this ETS study, humans awarded 732 perfect 6s, while GPT-4o gave out a grand total of only three. GPT’s stinginess with perfect scores might have affected a lot of Asian Americans who had received 6s from human raters.

ETS’s researchers had asked GPT-4o to score the essays cold, without showing the chatbot any graded examples to calibrate its scores. It’s possible that a few sample essays or small tweaks to the grading instructions, or prompts, given to ChatGPT could reduce or eliminate the bias against Asian Americans. Perhaps the robot would be fairer to Asian Americans if it were explicitly prompted to “give out more perfect 6s.” 

The ETS researchers told me this wasn’t the first time that they’ve noticed Asian students treated differently by a robo-grader. Older automated essay graders, which used different algorithms, have sometimes done the opposite, giving Asians higher marks than human raters did. For example, an ETS automated scoring system developed more than a decade ago, called e-rater, tended to inflate scores for students from Korea, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong on their essays for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), according to a study published in 2012 . That may have been because some Asian students had memorized well-structured paragraphs, while humans easily noticed that the essays were off-topic. (The ETS website says it only relies on the e-rater score alone for practice tests, and uses it in conjunction with human scores for actual exams.) 

Asian Americans also garnered higher marks from an automated scoring system created during a coding competition in 2021 and powered by BERT, which had been the most advanced algorithm before the current generation of large language models, such as GPT. Computer scientists put their experimental robo-grader through a series of tests and discovered that it gave higher scores than humans did to Asian Americans’ open-response answers on a reading comprehension test. 

It was also unclear why BERT sometimes treated Asian Americans differently. But it illustrates how important it is to test these systems before we unleash them in schools. Based on educator enthusiasm, however, I fear this train has already left the station. In recent webinars, I’ve seen many teachers post in the chat window that they’re already using ChatGPT, Claude and other AI-powered apps to grade writing. That might be a time saver for teachers, but it could also be harming students. 

This story about AI bias was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report , a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Proof Points and other Hechinger newsletters .