In principle, white Americans support efforts to end racism. But in practice, they have long been unwilling to support the fundamental change needed to do that. Will this year’s events change that?
Freed slaves on the plantation of Confederate General Thomas F. Drayton in Hilton Head, South Carolina. This photograph was taken circa 1865.
Getty Images / CORBIS
For Black youth, death by suicide has become a leading cause of death. And they face social problems that give rise to depression and isolation that their white counterparts do not.
African American students are disproportionately punished, starting in preschool.
Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Black farmers own far less land than they did in 1910 and the racial gap in homeownership is at the highest level for 50 years.
A group of sharecroppers, evicted from their land in the Great Depression, stand beside a Missouri road in January 1939.
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April Thames, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Racism – and the chronic stress it causes – leads to poor health among African Americans. It may change the way genes are expressed, leading to increased levels of dangerous stress hormones.
A protester holds a sign showing a black US flag during a demonstration in Denver, Colorado, on May 31, 2020.
Jason Connolly/AFP
That George Floyd died at the hands of four police officers is uncontested, but interpretations of his death and its aftermath differ greatly. The result is two starkly opposed narratives.
Mourning in Minneapolis: Terrence Floyd at a vigil for his brother George Floyd on the spot where he died in police custody.
Tannen Maury/EPA
African Americans have long taken to the streets to protest against racial injustice. While some progress has been made, police violence remains an ever-present reality.
Ahmaud Arbery’s best friend, right, and his sister speak at a memorial event for Arbery on May 9, 2020.
Sean Rayford/Getty Images
The US has a centuries-old tradition of killing black people without repercussion – and of publicly viewing the violence. Spreading those images can disrespect the dead and traumatize viewers.
When the shuttered economy reopens, how many black Americans will be left out in the cold?
http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Virus-Outbreak-Unemployment-Funds/390acd85a7b94a2a8cfddfdd414dacfa/1/0Mark Lennihan
Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy, Associate Research Professor, Political Science, Co-host of Democracy Works Podcast, Penn State