The Bias Narrative versus the Development Narrative: Thinking About Persistent Racial Inequality in the United States

Let me be as provocative as I can. I want to talk about the power of narratives to shape racial politics in this country. As we all know George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis by police officer Derek Chauvin, who has been duly convicted of murder by a jury of his peers. The cop was white and his victim black. But I have a question: Was it a racial incident?

What would we mean if we said this was a racial incident, beyond the trivial statement that one participant was...