A Report Card on Race: How Far We’ve Come, How Far We Have to Go

The good news: Diversity in the boardroom has ticked up, Congress is more inclusive, and, if you’re at a newsstand, you’re more likely to see a non-White cover model on an international fashion magazine. But on big issues, things haven’t improved much, or they’ve gotten worse. Black and Hispanic Americans are by many measures worse off than they were at the start of the pandemic, hate crimes have surged, and the continuing health crisis has hit minority and low-income communities hard.

Numbers can’t tell the whole story; you can’t fully quantify backlash against social justice movements. Still, some of the researchers who began tracking these numbers felt called to mark a moment. For example, Todd Lawrence, an associate professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., helped start a database of street art protesting racism and police brutality. “It’s a way to remember the protest and get at the feelings people were having, the emotions, the demands that people were making—and let them not disappear,” he says.