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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
• 2. Black Americans’ views on political strategies, leadership and allyship for achieving equality
• 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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Racism: What it is, how it affects us and why it’s everyone’s job to do something about it

Bray lecturer Camara Jones addresses racism as a public health crisis

• Post author By Kathryn
• Post date October 5, 2020

By Kathryn Stroppel

In 2018, the CDC found a 16% difference in the mortality rates of Blacks versus whites across all ages and causes of death. This means that white Americans can sometimes live more than a decade longer than Blacks.  

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the discrepancy in health outcomes has only grown. Michigan’s population, for instance, is 14% Black, yet near the start of the pandemic, African Americans made up 35% of cases and 40% of deaths.  

Because of this discrepancy in health outcomes, many scientists and government officials, including former American Public Health Association President Camara Jones, MD, PhD, MPH ; more than 50 municipalities nationwide; and a handful of legislators are attempting to root out this inequality and call it what it is: A public health crisis. 

Dr. Jones, a nationally sought-after speaker and the college’s 2020 Bray Health Leadership Lecturer, has been engaged in this work for decades and says the time to act is now.  

“The seductiveness of racism denial is so strong that if people just say a thing, six months from now they may forget why they said it. But if we start acting, we won’t forget why we’re acting,” she says. “That’s why it’s important right now to move beyond just naming something or putting out a statement making a declaration, but to actually engage in some kind of action.” 

Synergies editor Kathryn Stroppel talked with Dr. Jones about this unique time in history, her work, racism’s effects on health and well-being, and what we can all do about it. 

Let’s start with definitions. What is racism and why is important to acknowledge ‘systemic’ racism in particular? 

“Racism is a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks, which is what we call race, that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, unfairly advantages other individuals and communities and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources.  

“The reason that people are using those words ‘systemic’ or ‘structural racism’ is that sometimes if you say the word racism, people think you’re talking about an individual character flaw, or a personal moral failing, when in fact racism is a system.  

“It’s not about trying to divide the room into who’s racist and who’s not. I am clear that the most profound impacts of racism happen without bias.

“The most profound impacts of racism are because structural racism has been institutionalized in our laws, customs and background norms. It does not require an identifiable perpetrator. And it most often manifests as inaction in the face of need.” 

Why did you want to give the 2020 Bray Lecture? 

“I’ve been doing this work for decades, and all of a sudden, now that we are recognizing the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color, and after the murder of George Floyd and all of the other highly publicized murders that have been happening, more and more people are interested in naming racism and asking how is racism is operating here and organizing and strategizing to act. I wish I could accept every invitation.” 

What do you hope people take away from your lecture? 

“When I was president of the American Public Health Association in 2016, I launched a national campaign against racism with three tasks: To name racism; to ask, ‘how is racism operating here?’; and then to organize and strategize to act.  

“Naming racism is urgently important, especially in the context of widespread denial that racism exists. We have to say the word ‘racism’ to acknowledge that it exists, that it’s real and that it has profoundly negative impacts on the health and well-being of the nation.

“We have to be able to put together the words ‘systemic racism’ and ‘structural racism’ to able to be able to affirm that Black lives matter. That’s important and necessary, but insufficient.  

“I then equip people with tools to address how racism operates by looking at the elements of decision making, which are in our structures, policies, practices, norms and values, and the who, what, when and where of decision making, especially who’s at the table and who’s not.  

“After you have acknowledged that the problem exists, after you have some kind of understanding of what piece of it is in your wheelhouse and what lever you can pull, or who you know, you organize, strategize and collectively act.” 

You’re known for using allegory to explain racism. Why is that? 

“I use allegory because that’s how I see the world. There are two parts to it. One is that I’m observant. If I see something and if it makes me go, ‘Hmm,’ I just sort of store that away. And the second part is that I am a teacher. I’ve been telling a gardening allegory since before I started teaching at Harvard, but I later expanded that in order to help people understand how to contextualize the three levels of racism.  

“As an assistant professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, I developed its first course on race and racism. As I’m teaching students and trying to help them understand different elements, different aspects of race, racism and anti-racism, I found myself using these images naturally just to explain things, and then I recognized that allegory is sort of a superpower.  

“It makes conversations that might be otherwise difficult more accessible because we’re not talking about racism between you and me, we’re talking about these two flower pots and the pink and red seed, or we’re talking about an open or closed sign, or we’re talking about a conveyor belt or a cement factory. And so I put the image out there to suggest the ways that it can help us understand issues of race and racism. And then other people add to it or question certain parts and it becomes our collective image and our tool, not just mine.” 

What should white people in particular see as their role and responsibility in this system? 

“All of us need to recognize that racism exists, that it’s a system, that it saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources, and that we can do something about it. White people in particular have to recognize that acknowledging their privilege is important – that your very being gives you the benefit of the doubt.  

“White people who don’t want to walk around oblivious to their privilege or benefit from a racist society need to understand how to use their white privilege for the struggle.”  

“An example: About six years ago now, in McKinney, Texas, outside of Dallas, we came to know that there was a group of pre-teens who wanted to celebrate a birthday at a neighborhood swimming pool. The people who were at the pool objected to them being there and called the police. And what we saw was a white police officer dragging a young Black girl by her hair, and then he sat on her, and the young Black boys were handcuffed sitting on the curb.  

“The next day on TV, I heard a young white boy who was part of the friend group saying it was almost as if he were invisible to the police. He saw what was happening to his friends and he could have run home for safety, but instead, he recognized his white skin privilege. He stood up and videotaped all that was going on.  

“So, the thing is not to deny your white skin privilege or try to shed it, the thing is to recognize it and use it. Then as you’re using it, don’t think of yourself as an ally. Think of yourself as a compatriot in the struggle to dismantle racism. We have to recognize that if you’re white, your anti-racist struggle is not for ‘them.’ It’s for all of us.” 

Why did you transition from medicine to public health? 

“Because there’s a difference between a narrow focus on the individual and a population-based approach. I started as a family physician, but then wanted to do public health because it made me sad to fix my patients up and then send them back out into the conditions that made them sick.  

“I wanted to broaden my approach and really understand those conditions that make people sick or keep them well. From there, the data doesn’t necessarily turn into policy. So, I sort of went into the policy aspect of things. And then you recognize that you can have all the policy you want, but sometimes the policy is not enacted by politicians. So now I am considering maybe moving into politics.”  

Speaking of politics, when engaging in discussions around racism and privilege, people will sometimes try to shut down the conversation for being ‘political.’ Is racism political? 

“Racism exists. It’s foundational in our nation’s history. It continues to have profoundly negative impacts on the health and well-being of the nation. To describe what is happening is not political. If people want to deny what exists, then maybe they have political reasons for doing that.” 

What are your thoughts on COVID-19 and our country’s approach to dealing with the virus?  

“The way we’ve dealt with COVID-19 is a very medical care approach. We need to have a population view where you do random samples of people you identify as asymptomatic as well as symptomatic.  

“When you have a narrow medical approach to testing, you can document the course of the pandemic, but you can’t do anything to change it.

“With a population-based approach we already know how to stop this pandemic: It’s stay-at-home orders, mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing.

“This very seductive, narrow focus on the individual is making us scoff at public health strategies that we could put in place and is hamstringing us in terms of appropriate responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“In terms of race, COVID-19 is unmasking the deep disinvestment in our communities, the historical injustices and the impact of residential segregation. This is the time to name racism as the cause of those things. The overrepresentation of people of color in poverty and white people in wealth is not happenstance.” 

We have work to do. Learn how the college is transforming academia for equity .

• Tags COVID , Public Health

Systemic racism and America today

Subscribe to how we rise, john r. allen john r. allen.

June 11, 2020

Unaddressed systemic racism is, in my mind, the most important issue in the United States today. And it has been so since before the founding of our nation.

Slavery was America’s “original sin.” It was not solved by the framers of the U.S. Constitution, nor was it resolved by the horrendous conflict that was of the American Civil War. It simply changed its odious form and continued the generational enslavement of an entire strata of American society. In turn, the Civil Rights Movement struck a mighty blow against racism in America, and our souls soared when Dr. King told us he had a dream. But we were and still are far from the “promised land.” And even when America rose up to elect its first Black President, Barack Obama, we may indeed have lost ground as a collective nation along the way.

That is our legacy as Americans, and in many ways, the most hateful remnants of slavery persist in the U.S. today in the form of systemic racism baked into nearly every aspect of our society and who we are as a people. Indeed, for those tracing their heritage to countries outside of Western Europe, or for those with a non-Christian belief system, that undeniable truth often impacts every aspect of who you are as a person, in one form or another.

The reality of this history has been on stark display in recent weeks. From the terrible killings of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, to the countless, untold acts of racism that take place every day across America, these are the issues that are defining the moment—just as our response will define who we are and will be in the 21st century and beyond. Truly, the very nature of our “national soul” is at stake, and we all have a deep responsibility to be a part of the solution.

For us at Brookings, race, racism, equality, and equity are now matters of presidential priority. Addressing systemic racism is a key component of those efforts, with research also focusing on the Latino and Native American communities; faith-based communities, including our Jewish and Muslim communities; and the threat of white supremacy and domestic terrorism also playing a major role. It will also include work on the important need for comprehensive police reform, to include reform rooted in local community engagement and empowerment. We will not solve systemic racism and inequality over-night, and we have so much work ahead. But in a world where we often spend more time debating the nature of our problems than taking meaningful action, we must find ways to contribute however we can and to move forward as a community.

I firmly believe that we as Americans cannot remain silent about injustice. Inaction is simply unacceptable, and we have to stand up and speak out. And if our elected representatives and our elected leadership deny the problem, and refuse to act, then we must take on the responsibility of reform from the bottom up with special attention at the ballot box.

And especially for those Americans who may look like me – a white American male – or come from a similar background, action begins with reflection, and most importantly listening. It’s also about elevating and supporting the voices of those traditionally underrepresented, or even silenced, throughout society.  How We Rise is an absolutely critical part of that solution.

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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.

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Racial Discrimination in Contemporary   America

Equal opportunity is the bedrock of American democracy, and our country’s diversity is one of our greatest strengths. However, in recognition of the fact that many Americans still face systemic barriers to equal opportunity and full participation in American life because of their race, on his first day in office, President Biden committed to an ambitious racial equity agenda, which included signing two Executive Orders and catalyzing a whole-of-government effort to redress disparities and inequities still faced by underserved communities. This Issue Brief summarizes social science research on the prevalence of discrimination by race in a variety of economic domains. It also highlights the role of racial bias, and presents some new analysis on the relationship between racial discrimination and racial bias.

Executive Summary

• While many gaps have improved over time, significant racial disparities exist in various aspects of American life, such as neighborhood quality (which affects the childhood environment), employment in adulthood, and wealth accumulation.
• Research shows the persistence of differential treatment by race in access to housing, employment, and mortgage or business loans—even in settings where there are no differences across groups other than race (for example, job applicants with identical resumes but different names), or settings where no other factors would influence outcomes—indicating that discrimination still exists today and plays a role in explaining current racial gaps.
• Research shows that barriers created by discrimination lead to considerable reductions in the well-being of the targets of discrimination, in addition to forgone economic activity for all Americans.
• Focusing on Black-White gaps—where there is the most evidence—across various domains (e.g., housing, employment, and access to capital), racial gaps that can only reasonably be ascribed to discrimination are most pronounced in geographic areas where there are higher measured levels of both explicit and implicit racial bias (which may or may not reflect conscious actions or animus) based on validated psychometric measures.
• The prevalence and effect of implicit bias underscore the limitations of relying solely on race-neutral tools to advance equal opportunity.

Equal opportunity is the bedrock of American democracy, and our diversity is one of our country’s greatest strengths. The landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, enacted 60 years ago, aimed to advance this equality in multiple domains. It outlawed segregation in public places —including courthouses, parks, restaurants, theaters, sports arenas, and hotels. The Act also outlawed employer discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce the law’s provisions.

Sixty years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Biden Administration is working to break down barriers to equal opportunity. On his first day in office, President Biden signed Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government and on February 16, 2023, the President signed Executive Order 14091  to further advance racial equity. These Executive Orders aim to address the racial discrimination that persists in America today. This Issue Brief focuses on this present-day discrimination.

Discrimination not only affects its direct targets, but it also hurts the entire economy by hindering a significant portion of the population from realizing their full economic potential. For instance, Cook (2014) finds that violence against Black Americans from 1870 to 1940 resulted in over a thousand lost patents and that “ the economic impact of that decline was equivalent to the GDP of a medium-sized European country at the time . ” Moreover, Hsieh et. al. (2019) found that reducing the misallocation of Black talent since the 1950s (e.g., Black Americans who became shopkeepers instead of doctors due to racial barriers) increased per-capita GDP growth by about 4.9%—the equivalent of approximately $1 trillion in today’s dollars, adjusted for inflation. This is consistent with one accounting exercise that estimates that gaps in economic opportunity between Black, Hispanic, and other racial minority groups and those of non-Hispanic white individuals cost the U.S. economy trillions of dollars per year. While it is difficult to pin down a precise dollar amount, the evidence makes clear that eliminating discrimination is not just a matter of fairness but also about economic efficiency and the prosperity of all Americans.

Since the 1960s, certain measures of explicit bias and racism have significantly decreased. For instance, in the 1960s, a majority of White Americans believed they had the right to exclude Blacks from their neighborhoods and opposed interracial marriage . Today, these beliefs are held by a small minority. However, both explicit and implicit biases (that is, thoughts or impulses that can manifest as prejudiced action or inaction without biased intent) still exist in subtle but pervasive and consequential ways. Indeed, as discussed below, social science research confirms that racial discrimination is present in various sectors, including banking, housing, and employment.

While racial differences do not always imply discrimination, social scientists have found significant racial disparities in key areas, such as access to capital, employment, and housing, and in settings where the only difference between individuals was race, or in settings where all other factors were irrelevant—indicating that differential treatment because of race is still a reality (as discussed below).

This document describes evidence of differential treatment of renters, workers, business owners, and everyday people that can only reasonably be attributed to race. This differential treatment by race has effects from childhood through adulthood, and limits racial minorities’ access to neighborhoods that promote upward economic mobility, access to employment with good pay, and access to loans which facilitate business ownership and wealth creation. The research paints a clear picture of decidedly unequal access to opportunity because of race. While much of the existing research focuses on Black Americans, we also highlight examples of discrimination faced by other racial and ethnic groups when evidence is available. Moreover, this document highlights how this differential treatment is directly related to measures of implicit or explicit racial bias developed by social scientists. The patterns underscore that that differential treatment is important, economically meaningful, and pervasive even today, and highlight that racial discrimination still exists, even in settings when the official rules are race-neutral on their face.

Some Racial Differences Can Only Be Due to Discrimination

As used in this document, racial discrimination refers to different treatment of individuals or groups because of their race, whether the result of explicit or implicit bias. One method for demonstrating racial discrimination is to establish that (1) there are gaps (i.e., differences in outcomes) by race for some outcome, and (2) show that these gaps cannot be explained by reasons other than race.

While showing gaps by race is straightforward, showing that gaps are caused by racial bias is more difficult. For example, because of changing demography in the United States, the average White American adult is 50.3 years old, while the average non-White American adult is 39.9 years old. Also, older individuals tend to have more years of experience and therefore earn higher wages ( Census, 2013 ). As such, White Americans may earn higher wages than non-White Americans, on average, partly due to differences in experience rather than due to race per se . Even after adjusting for differences in age, one may also need to account for other economic, geographic, or demographic factors to assess whether the observed racial wage gap is due to racial bias. Indeed, in cases involving allegations of discrimination, courts routinely examine whether a policy or outcome resulting in disparities between racial groups can be explained on grounds other than race (e.g., Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp. )

While not all racial gaps imply racial bias, there are some gaps that clearly do. That is, social scientists have gotten around the challenge on accounting for other factors by relying on settings where there are no differences across groups other than race , or settings where any other factors would have no influence on outcomes. In such settings, the only reasonable explanation for racial gaps is discrimination. We outline some of this evidence – showing clear evidence of discrimination against Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans across several key domains that limit their economic prospects from childhood through adulthood.

Evidence of Racial Bias in Access to Neighborhoods

One of the early determinants of economic well-being is one’s neighborhood during childhood. Notably, the neighborhoods where children grow up significantly influence their long-term educational and economic outcomes ( Chetty and Hendren 2018 ; Chyn and Katz 2021 ). These neighborhoods determine children’s access to clean water which is free from pollutants ( Huynh et al., 2024 ), high performing schools, and availability of job networks ( Fee 2020 ). The difference between growing up in a high-mobility neighborhood versus a low-mobility one has a strong causal effect on children’s long-run outcomes. Chetty et al. (2018 ) find that, even when comparing outcomes of siblings from the same low-income families , growing up in a high- versus a low-mobility neighborhood can increase adult earning by over 30 percent. As such, any discrimination that limits racial minorities’ access to high-mobility neighborhoods limits minority children’s prospects for upward mobility—that is, unequal opportunity because of race.

There are large racial gaps in neighborhood traits and amenities. Due to redlining —defined as the systematic denial of mortgages and other financial services because of the racial or ethnic characteristics of the residents of the neighborhood in which the property is located—many people of color still live in neighborhoods they were previously consigned to, which are in close proximity to  oil and gas wells . Also, racial minorities are much more likely to be exposed to air pollution than White Americans, more likely to live within a mile of a hazardous waste site , and less likely to have access to lead-free drinking water . In rural areas, they are also less likely to be served by a hospital. There is compelling evidence that racial bias in access to neighborhoods plays a key role in where people live—impacting outcomes for multiple generations. Consistent with this notion, Chetty et al. (2020) isolates the causal effect of neighborhoods on upward mobility (defined as growing up in a median income household and then having adult earnings in the top quintile) and finds that predominantly White neighborhoods are three times more upwardly mobile than predominantly Black neighborhoods. While past discrimination is partially responsible for these gaps, here we detail evidence that current discrimination plays a role.

In 2022, there were a total of  over 33,000 fair housing complaints  across the country and there are very recent high profile examples of sellers who do not want to sell to Black families . Using a more quantitative approach, social scientists test for racial bias in housing using correspondence studies in which researchers distribute identical fictitious responses to rental ads, which by design, differ only in the implied racial identity of the applicant. Absent any bias, an equal share of applicants in all groups should be responded to, and the time to response would be the same. Since differences in response times or gaps in callback rates cannot be ascribed to application differences, gaps must therefore indicate differential treatment, or bias.

Using this approach, several studies have found that emails from non-White applicants have slower response times and are less likely to receive a response at all. Carpusor and Loges (2006 ) randomly assigned White, African American, and Arab names to emails and found that “ African American and Arab names received significantly fewer positive responses than White names, and African American names fared worst of all .” Similar results are found for African American names by Hanson and Hawley (2011 ). [1] Similar to correspondence studies are audit studies or undercover tester studies that send actual applicants (trained actors) with near identical profiles from different groups. Using undercover testers of different races with similar financial profiles, a 2019 audit study  from Newsday analyzed over 5,700 house listings in Long Island NY (a high-opportunity and highly segregated suburban neighborhood) and found discrimination against Asians, Hispanics, and Blacks: 19, 39, and 49 percent of the time, respectively. Discrimination captured various forms of disparate treatment by agents, including refusing to provide house listings or home tours to minority testers unless they met financial qualifications that weren’t imposed on their White counterparts, directing Whites and minorities into differing communities (to match the demographics of the neighborhood), and showing White testers more listings than other testers. Other audit studies comparing equally qualified Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) and White Americans in rental and sales markets. AAPIs were told about 9.8 percent fewer available rental properties and were shown 6.6 percent fewer units than their White counterparts. The effects were even larger in the sales market, where AAPIs were told about 15.5 percent fewer available properties and were shown 18.8 percent fewer properties.

These behaviors have real effects on where people live. Recent studies find large Black-White response gaps and show how this behavior blocks Black families out of particular neighborhoods. One 2023 study finds that these gaps are larger in places with high-quality schools and few Black residents – reinforcing racial segregation and depriving Black renters access to high quality schools. Similarly, another recent study analyzed over 25,000 email interactions with landlords across the 50 largest US cities and found that African American and Hispanic renters often face discrimination and that the extent varies by region. The study also matches evidence on actual rental outcomes to show that this discrimination was likely a driver of increased segregation and intergenerational income gaps—underscoring that this racial bias leads to racial gaps in access to high-mobility neighborhoods with amenities that promote positive outcomes.

One paper uses these same data to estimate the welfare loss due to having limited choices. First, the paper documents that discrimination limits applicants’ access to neighborhoods with higher rent, better schools, and lower exposure to toxins. The authors then estimate a model of willingness to pay for these amenities and conclude that discrimination resulted in “ lost choices that these groups would be willing to pay significant sums to avoid. ” They conclude that discrimination—by limiting housing options—imposes damages between 3.5% and 4.4% of annual income for renters of color on average, and as high as 7% of income at income for African Americans making above $100,000 per year.” The authors note that this accounting of damages may be incomplete, and the approach may not include the potential intergenerational effects. However, the key takeaway is that the welfare implications are sizable. More generally, by impacting where families are able to live, these discriminatory actions impact access to local amenities, including access to schools, jobs, quality health care, a toxin-free environment, and transportation. Chetty et al. (2018 ) finds that some neighborhoods have a profound causal effect on the likelihood that a child from a low-income family is able to be a high earner as an adult: housing discrimination blocks minority children form taking advantage of these neighborhood-based opportunities. These factors impact the health and well-being of adults ( Chyn and Katz 2021 ) and impact the short- and long-run outcomes of their children.

Evidence of Racial Bias in Employment

While neighborhoods shape economic outcomes from an early age, a key determinant of economic well-being in adulthood is having a stable job with good pay. Thus, racial bias in employment has far-reaching implications for the well-being of those harmed. Based on the observed gaps, a typical Black worker in 2023 made about 12 percent less and was 2 percentage points less likely to be employed than a typical White worker of the same age, gender, education, and living in the same Census region. There are similar but somewhat smaller gaps for Hispanic workers. [2] As detailed below, research shows that these gaps for Black and Hispanic workers are, in part,due to discrimination.

As in housing, researchers test for racial bias in hiring using correspondence studies, in which researchers distribute identical fictitious resumes or job applications which, by design, differ only in the implied racial identity of the applicant. In one study published in 2004, resumes were sent out in response to help-wanted ads in Chicago and Boston newspapers. The authors randomly assigned some otherwise identical resumes with very White sounding names (such as Emily Walsh or Greg Baker) and others with very African American sounding names (such as Lakisha Washington or Jamal Jones). They find that the White sounding names “ receive 50 percent more callbacks for interviews. ” More recently, Kline et al. (2022 ) conducted a similar experiment with over 83,000 job applications sent to large Fortune 500 firms and find that callback rates were 9 percent less for the Black-sounding names, with much larger gaps from some specific employers. This basic result has been replicated by several researchers in a variety of settings, consistently finding a callback gap between 9 and 50 percent. [3] Looking systematically and over time, a recent meta-analysis of correspondence and audit studies (which send actors of different races to apply to jobs with identical qualifications) that also include Latino-Americans, finds an average Black-White callback gap of 36 percent and an average Latino-White callback gap of 24 percent. Looking at trends over time they find no change in the level of discrimination against African Americans since 1989, although they do find some suggestive evidence of declining discrimination against Latinos.

Looking beyond the callback stage, a recent summary of multiple audit studies found considerable additional discrimination. In their data, majority applicants with very similar qualifications received 53% more callbacks than comparable minority (e.g., Black, Hispanic, Middle Eastern) applicants, and 145% more job offers than comparable minority applicants – indicating that the gaps in callbacks understate gaps in the likelihood of receiving a job offer. The fact that minority applicants are less than half as likely to be offered a job than similarly qualified White applicants mechanically leads to elevated racial gaps in unemployment rates. It also reduces the bargaining power of Black and Hispanic workers relative to White workers, resulting in lower relative pay. The evidence clearly conveys that discrimination exists, and plays a key role in generating these racial gaps.

Evidence of Racial Bias in Access to Capital

Wealth is arguably a more robust measure of long-run economic well-being than income. Access to credit and capital markets is important for business creation and building wealth. A large literature studying the determinants of entrepreneurship finds strong evidence that insufficient capital and access to credit markets serve as one of the main barriers to entrepreneurship. For example, sudden increases in wealth, through bequests or lottery winnings , and increased access to bank financing through financial deregulation , increase entry into entrepreneurship. As such, differential access to capital by race can lead to racial gaps in business ownership in addition to other measures of wealth.

A 2022 report from the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee found that “ Black and Hispanic households are more likely than White households to be denied or not receive as much credit as requested when applying. ” While racial gaps in business ownership and homeownership (both strong predictors of wealth) have narrowed in the past three years under President Biden due to a rise in minority-owned business formation , gaps remain. Looking at raw gaps in 2022, only about 6 percent of Black and Hispanic households owned a business—compared to about 9 percent of White households. Homeownership rates in 2022 were 46 percent for Black households, 51 percent for Hispanic household, and 63 for Asian households – all below the 73 percent for White households. Also, the Black-White wealth gap has been between a massive 80-85 percent in recent decades ( Derenoncourt et al., 2024 ). As we summarize below, evidence indicates that present day discrimination in credit access plays a role for Black, Asian, and Hispanic borrowers.

Using the audit study approach and matching similar applicants of different races, one study conducted in 2017 finds that, compared to White business loan applicants, Black business loan applicants were asked to provide more financial and personal information, including marital status, which can be a violation of fair lending law . In addition, Black applicants were less likely to be offered to complete an application, offered a future appointment, or provided help in completing a loan application. These results have been replicated across different studies .

Recent research based on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) program also found strong and compelling evidence of private-sector lending discrimination between 2020 and 2021. In an effort to support small business jobs, private lenders administered PPP loans that were federally guaranteed . The federal guarantee essentially eliminated a lender’s risk because the government repaid lenders if a business defaulted. Even so, one study showed that Black business owners were less likely to receive PPP loans compared to White business owners with similar application profiles (including similar credit histories, education, age, and business profile).

Finally, one 2023 study leverages a policy change to isolate evidence of discrimination by race in PPP lending. First, the study documents (as others do), that minority borrowers in general and Black-owned businesses in particular were less likely to receive PPP loans from small and mid-sized banks in settings where subjectivity (and thus bias) was most likely to influence lending decisions. Again, these racial gaps were found despite the fact that there was a federal guarantee largely eliminating risk to the lender. However, the study also found that these racial gaps (for Black, Asian, and Hispanic business owners relative to White business owners) shrank when processing procedures such as income and payroll verification were computer-automated rather than conducted by a bank employee. That is, when there was less scope for human decision-making, and all applications were treated equally irrespective of the race of the applicant, racial gaps in approved loans decreased.

Measuring Racial Bias, Either Explicit or Implicit

The previous section presented much evidence on racial gaps in situations where the only possible explanation was race itself. The compelling evidence of real-world racial disparities and discrimination has led many researches to explore and identify potential causes tied to underlying racial bias, either explicit or implicit. Social scientists often explore this possibility by examining whether racial disparities are more pronounced in regions with higher levels of racial bias. The theory that areas with stronger prejudice would exhibit larger racial disparities was proposed by Becker (1957) and is supported by empirical data.

We use measures of implicit and explicit bias that are used by researchers. Researches have employed varying measures of racial bias, including public opinion questions such as “Would you object to sending your kids to a school that had [a certain fraction of] Black students?” or “Do you agree that White people have the right to keep Black people out of their neighborhoods?” Other measures of bias include measures of local housing segregation , the number of hate crimes against various groups, racially-biased Google searches , and implicit and explicit bias tests . For purposes of the analysis here, we use two of these established measures of bias. One is a measure of implicit bias that comes from Implicit Association Test (IAT) scores ( Greenwald, Nosek, and Banaji, 2003 ). This measures subconscious biases that individuals have towards various groups of people. It is based on the speed at which respondents are able to associate positive words and concepts with Black versus White faces or the word “Black” versus “White.” We take geographic averages of this measure. Our second measure is a measure of explicit bias based on geographic variation in the prevalence of racially charged web searches ( Stephens-Davidowitz 2014 ).

Previous research shows that places with higher levels of these two measures of prejudice have larger racial wage gaps , racial mortality gaps , and fewer loans for Black-owned businesses. In what follows, we show that these measures predict geographic variation in the prevalence of discrimination. [4] Given the much larger research base for Black-White gaps, much (but not all) of this analysis is on Black-White gaps.

The Role of Bias in Racial Gaps in Access to Housing, Employment, and Lending

Looking at discrimination in housing, Figure 1 plots rankings of callback gaps (the difference between the callback rate for minority and non-minority applicants) for housing applications found in Christensen et al. (2021 ). The paper considers 50 large Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) and we order these places from largest to the smallest callback gaps. Lower numbers indicate larger racial callback gaps, with higher numbers indicating smaller gaps. The authors create callback gaps separately for Black applicants and Hispanic applicants. For this analysis, the CEA pulled information from their paper and linked each CBSA to the local measure of implicit and explicit bias described above, so that each dot in Figure 1 reflects a CBSA. The left panel in Figure 1 shows that going from an area with low explicit bias (10th percentile) to one with high bias (the 90th percentile) is associated with a CBSA being ranked about 18 places worse (i.e., a lower number) in terms of Black callback rates. The right panel in Figure 1 shows that going from an area with low to high implicit bias is associated with a CBSA being ranked about 14 places worse in terms of Hispanic callback rates. Put differently, going from a place with low to high explicit bias would reduce the callback rates of Blacks by about 14 percent relative to Whites, and going from a place with low to high bias implicit bias would reduce the callback rates of Hispanics by 7 percent relative to Whites. These patterns are clear: landlords are much more likely to treat inquiries for a rental differently by race in locations that exhibit a greater prevalence of both implicit and explicit racial bias.

Figure 2 plots the racial callback gap for job applications from Kline, Rose, and Walters (2022) , using the two measures of bias. Job applications are pooled by geography so that each dot reflects a Designated Media Area (DMA). Figure 2 plots the estimated job callback gaps against DMA average levels of racial bias. Importantly, measures of both explicit and implicit bias are associated with larger Black-White job callback gaps. The left panel in Figure 2 shows that going from a low to high explicit bias area (as defined above) is associated with about a 1 percentage point increase in the racial callback gap (or about a 11 percent increase from a baseline gap of 9 percent); the right panel shows that going from an area with low to high implicit bias leads to a similar increase in the gap. Put differently, going from the least to the most biased DMAs (6 standard deviations apart) is associated with a 2-percentage point difference in the callback rate, representing a 23 percent increase in the callback gap. What this means is that if Black and White applicants submitted identical applications, there would be 23 percent more callbacks among the White applications than the Black application in high versus low bias areas. That is, in places where people tend to exhibit bias against Black Americans (either in web searches or in how long it takes to associate a Black face with a positive word), employers are more likely to treat otherwise identical resumes with Black and White sounding names differently.

Looking at business access to financing in Figure 3, the CEA used information in Tables 3 and 5 from Howell et al. (2023) to understand how the same two measures of implicit and explicit bias impact being approved for a business loan. Recall that there were racial gaps in PPP lending even though they were federally guaranteed, thus largely eliminating credit risk as a factor in explaining differential lending by race. Also recall that these authors study the change in lending patterns by race after certain banks automated evaluation of loan applications.

The left panel in Figure 3 shows the percent change in PPP loans going to Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White business owners, after automating parts of the loan evaluation process. When human discretion was reduced, the racial gaps in lending fell. That is, the fraction of PPP loans going to Asian, Black, and Hispanic applicants rose and the fraction going to White applicants fell. Most notably, lending to Black business owners almost doubled.

The difference between the loan approval rate before and after automation across different groups is a measure of differential treatment by race due to human judgment. If these differences reflect bias-driven discrimination, one should expect that the effect of automation of payroll and income criteria would be largest in areas with more bias. This is precisely what the authors document. The right panel in Figure 3 shows how automation increased the fraction going to Black business owners overall and compared to areas with high implicit and explicit bias. Indeed, this panel shows that when banks automated processing of loan applications, Black businesses received 93 percent more loans in places with the least amount of bias, 134 percent more in places with high implicit bias, and 120 percent more in areas with high explicit bias. [5] In sum, as with employment and access to housing, racial disparities that can only be reasonably attributed to differential treatment because of race are most pronounced in geographic locations with greater levels of measured explicit and implicit racial bias.

Evidence in Other Areas

The evidence is clear that certain minority children are less likely to live in neighborhoods that have good schools , clean drinking water and clean air , and positive causal effects on upward mobility. As adults, many Americans from minority groups are less likely be called back for a job and attain good-paying employment, and less likely to gain access to much-needed capital to start a business or launch a new career than an otherwise identical White person. Furthermore, while not all evidence is experimental, there is compelling evidence of discrimination in many other important settings.

Ethnic minority home owners pay higher taxes than White homeowners in the same cities with similar homes, and they receive lower bids when selling items in online markets or selling their home . Black and Native American children are also more likely to receive substantiation and out-of-home placement decisions made by Child Protective Services, and Black children receive less attention from their teachers and instructors in online learning settings. Moreover, even when the teachers are randomly assigned, White teachers tend to rate Black students’ misbehavior more harshly than Black teachers . When stopped for speeding, Black and Hispanic drivers are less likely to have a ticket written for the lower speed threshold than White drivers, and more likely to be stopped when their race is more easily observed . In criminal justice, not only are there substantial sentencing gaps by race , but conditional on defendant traits and charges, research finds that incarceration rates are higher and sentences are longer in jurisdictions with a higher fraction of Black residents; the research concludes that confinement rates would fall by 15 percent if all jurisdictions adopted the sentencing of the most-White jurisdictions. Furthermore, there are large and important racial gaps in health. Even after accounting for socio-economic factors, Black women have a higher risk of maternal mortality than White women, life expectancy is shorter for Black Americans, and there is evidence that differential treatment by race plays a role . This is only a partial list, but the evidence is clear; an individual’s race still matters in myriad ways.

To combat explicit and implicit biases, several companies and organizations have put guardrails in place. For example, having managers voluntarily take diversity training can help reduce racial gaps in hiring. Direct recruiting on colleges can increase the hiring of minorities. Mentoring programs are effective at increasing the diversity of managers. Research has also shown that inviting non-managers to diversity and inclusion workshops can help organizations better identify points of conflict and possible resolutions. Working in teams as equals with co-workers of different ethnicities can lead to more equitable opportunity and promotion. In government, a new HUD policy requires certain lenders to allow borrowers to request a re-assessment of the appraised value of their property if they believe that the appraisal was inaccurate or biased. In sum, there are several ways for organizations to improve opportunity for less represented groups.

While challenges remain, Americans have made considerable progress since the 1960s in reducing many measures of overt racism and racial gaps in income, wealth, and educational attainment ( Donohue and Heckman, 1991 ; Center for Education Policy Analysis, 2017 ; Wolff, 2022 ; Kent and Ricketts, 2024 ). Even so, sizable discrimination from both explicit and implicit bias still exists today. The existence of contemporary discrimination motivates President Biden’s commitment to racial equity. As we show above, these biases are associated with important racial differences in a variety of domains that cannot be explained away by other factors and can only be reasonably attributed to racial bias. These data show that, in many ways, the structures and forces that necessitated civil rights legislation and a broader focus on racial equity still exist, and those same structural barriers continue to necessitate remedial action. Despite progress over the last sixty years, the evidence is clear that race continues to be a significant determinant of economic well-being in the lives of many Americans.

It is important to highlight that racial bias leads to racial gaps precisely in settings where the rules are race-neutral. Discrimination from bias is often prevalent whenever people have discretion, such as in calling back a job applicant or deciding whether to give a break to a speeding driver. [6] In such cases, the rules are race-neutral, but the application of the rules is not. Even if individuals making decisions may not have demonstrated explicit biases, their implicit biases may still impact their decisions. Indeed, in many of the examples above, measures of implicit bias are as predictive (and often more predictive) of discriminatory gaps as measures of explicit bias. The prevalence and effect of implicit bias shows the limitations of relying solely on race-neutral tools to advance equality of opportunity. In various contexts, the research suggests that race-conscious action may be necessary to truly achieve equality of opportunity for all Americans irrespective of race, creed, and color.

[1] Some studies indicate that these biases are most prevalent for Blacks who are not of high social status and for Hispanics who are portrayed as recent immigrants .

[2] Due to sample size constraints, we do not report such analysis for Asian Americans, but raw averages suggests that Asians, on average, earn more than their White counterparts. However, there is considerable heterogeneity within among Asian populations.

[3] Estimates of this callback gap: 9 percent , 14 percent , 23 percent , 36 percent , and 50 percent .

[4] We obtained job application microdata from the authors of Kline, Rose, and Walters (2022) ; we impute housing application estimates from Figure SM3.2 of Christensen et al. (2021 ); and we use PPP estimates from Tables 3 and 5 from Howell et al. (2023) .

[5] Places with more bias defined as two standard deviations more biased.

[6] However, algorithms may also exacerbate racial gaps if trained on data reflecting racial gaps .

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