In the wake of George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police, some on the Right have been quick to assert that systemic racism in our justice system is an urban legend. Unfortunately, the larger picture around systemic racism in policing is not nearly as clear-cut nor rosy as they present. Ignoring this will only result in ineffective policing reforms and continued tension between police departments and the communities they police.

To support their arguments, disbelievers of systemic bias often point to recent statistics of police shootings and examples of black-on-black violence. While they may be correct that intra-racial violence accounts for a much larger portion of black homicides than police violence, the same data suggests this is also true among whites.