ABSTRACT
Chapter 10 presents political arguments and policy recommendations designed to advance social, political, and economic equality in America. However, this chapter also discusses, in light of the roles that race and ethnicity have played in American history and the fraught moment at which we have arrived, how likely effective reforms are to be made. Does the current moment have greater potential to change U.S. race relations than other major turning points, the American Revolution, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Revolution of the mid-twentieth century? It would seem not, but even when gains have been made, it is sobering to recall that they have been hard to hold. Earlier gains have all been met, checked, and at least partially rolled back by racial orders and regimes that buttressed White privilege. Many hoped that the interracial uprising that followed the murder of George Floyd would open the door to racial reform, but the moment passed quickly. If justice remains elusive, can America thrive and prosper or will the nation’s historic inability to resolve its racial tensions lead to its decline, perhaps its demise?
