Racial Equity

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RAND research has addressed racial equity from several angles. Studies have explored such topics as disparities in the U.S. criminal justice system, unequal economic opportunities and barriers to employment for people of color, the achievement gap between minority and nonminority students, and how differences in access to quality health care can affect individual and community health and well-being.

  • A man's profile in front of an abstract image of branches and hundred dollar bills, illustration by Kekeli Sumah/RAND Corporation, from Andre Hunter/Unsplash and Pete Soriano/RAND Corporation, from Atlas Illustrations/Adobe Stock and dar/Adobe Stock

    Project

    Investigating the U.S. Racial Wealth Gap

    The gap in wealth between Black and white Americans is a product of historical realities that continue to shape economic outcomes. Policy interventions to address current wealth disparities must understand the long-standing inequities that contributed to them.

    Dec 7, 2022

  • Collage illustrating communication between police and community, photo by freshidea/Adobe Stock

    Essay

    Hackathon Focuses on Making Policing More Equitable

    Hackathons bring new ideas and perspectives to hard policy problems and introduce college students to the field of policy analysis. The latest hackathon, hosted by Pardee RAND and RAND NextGen, explored ways to make the criminal justice system more equitable and more effective.

    Jan 9, 2023

Explore Racial Equity

  • A diverse group of medical staff sitting at a table, listening to a Black doctor speaking, photo by FatCamera/Getty Images

    Commentary

    In Search of an Equity Lens: A Physician's Journey

    Patient health outcomes, communication with providers, and overall patient satisfaction improve when patients and providers share a similar background. Further, diverse work environments may positively impact health care provider job satisfaction. Increasing diversity in health care work settings is a first important step that could help to increase equity and inclusion in these environments.

    Aug 11, 2022

  • A young woman waiting for a nurse to get a syringe ready for an injection, photo by Lacheev/Getty Images

    Report

    Does Racism Affect Patient Safety?

    Rates and types of patient safety events vary across patients from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, with minoritized patients more likely to experience safety issues. The factors that lead to these disparities are complex and intertwined, but there is growing sentiment that racism may play a role.

    Aug 8, 2022

  • RAND Weekly Recap

    Blog

    Our New CEO, Algorithmic Bias, Equity in the Workplace: RAND Weekly Recap

    This weekly recap focuses on what RAND’s new president and CEO envisions for the future, addressing bias in health care algorithms, creating equitable change in the workplace, and more.

    Aug 5, 2022

  • Young Black man having blood drawn, photo by miodrag ignjatovic/Getty Images

    News Release

    Predicting Patients' Race and Ethnicity Can Improve Equity in Health Care Delivery

    Algorithms designed to guide medical care can contribute to racially inequitable outcomes, but eliminating information about patient race and ethnicity as an input to algorithms is not the right way to address the issue.

    Aug 1, 2022

  • Four people having a meeting in a conference room, photo by ljubaphoto/Getty Images

    Commentary

    Seven Ways to Build a Truly Equitable DEI Strategy

    Despite growth in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) roles worldwide, not much has changed with the power structure in DEI spaces, which still center on the C-suite and tend to be populated with groups that are less knowledgeable on research in DEI. Here are seven strategies for building a more-equitable DEI program.

    Aug 1, 2022

  • RAND Weekly Recap

    Blog

    Talking to Russia, Racial Bias, Mine-Hunting Dolphins: RAND Weekly Recap

    This weekly recap focuses on preventing escalation of the war in Ukraine, how racial bias compounds over time, why the Navy should stick with its mine-hunting dolphins, and more.

    Jul 29, 2022

  • Tool

    Tool

    How the Effects of Racial Bias Compound

    Researchers illustrate the ways in which small effects of racial bias can compound over lifetimes. Users of this tool can adjust the amount of racial bias to see its effects on educational achievement, income growth, and wealth accumulation.

    Jul 27, 2022

  • Vector of a white and black man divided by a broken bridge on a city background, illustration by Feodora Chiosea/Getty Images

    Commentary

    Segregation and Racism—Buffalo's Ignored History

    To move policy forward, public policy research will need to take a joint, nonpartisan look at diverse perspectives while, at the same time, giving space to voices that have been historically underrepresented. Changing or challenging fundamental assumptions in racial equity discourse requires a better understanding of the importance of cultural data, the longstanding impacts of systemic -isms on lived experiences, and a push for real-time policy solutions.

    Jul 25, 2022

  • RAND Weekly Recap

    Blog

    Abortion Misinformation, Deepfakes, Environmental Racism: RAND Weekly Recap

    This weekly recap focuses on abortion misinformation in a post-Roe world, the threat of deepfakes, environmental hazards in historically redlined communities, and more.

    Jul 8, 2022

  • Report

    Report

    Diversity in U.S. Military Families: An Environmental Scan of the Peer-Reviewed Literature on Race and Ethnic Variation for Select Well-Being Outcomes

    Researchers explore the literature on race and ethnicity in relation to U.S. military service member well-being in the areas of mental health, behavioral health, family violence, marital satisfaction, and financial stress.

    Jul 1, 2022

  • Aerial map image by Google Earth

    Essay

    Environmental Racism: How Historic Redlining Continues to Affect Communities

    Starting in the 1930s, neighborhoods across America were redlined—marked on government maps as too hazardous, as in, too Black or too immigrant, for federal home loans. When zoning officials needed somewhere to put a new factory or freeway, those redlined neighborhoods were like a bullseye that they hit again and again.

    Jun 27, 2022

  • RAND Weekly Recap

    Blog

    Gun Policy, Ukraine's Best Chance for Peace, Equity and Public Policy: RAND Weekly Recap

    This weekly recap focuses what the scientific evidence says about gun laws, a potential pathway toward peace in Ukraine, helping incarcerated parents, and more.

    Jun 3, 2022

  • Person looking at a laptop that displays the Evidence and Equity Collaborative website

    Announcement

    Introducing the Evidence and Equity Collaborative

    In the fall of 2020, the chief executive officers of nine leading policy research organizations met to discuss the critical importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of public policy research and in their individual workplaces. The result is the Evidence and Equity Collaborative.

    Jun 1, 2022

  • Teacher helping student in classroom

    Multimedia

    A Snapshot of Anti-Bias Education in U.S. K–12 Schools

    In this webinar, RAND researchers share data from a national teacher survey administered in spring 2021 concerning the extent to which public school teachers report addressing anti-bias education in their K-12 classrooms. Discussants from organizations that support high-quality teaching and learning reflect on the findings and their implications for helping all students in public schools succeed.

    Apr 18, 2022

  • RAND Weekly Recap

    Blog

    Helping Ukrainian Refugees, Truth Decay, Algorithmic Inequity: RAND Weekly Recap

    This weekly recap focuses on how to help Ukrainian refugees, the link between cognitive processes and Truth Decay, tracking wastewater to understand the spread of COVID-19, and more.

    Apr 1, 2022

  • A historical map of Philadelphia showing the outlines of the 'redlined' neighborhoods determined by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation.

    Project

    Environmental Racism

    Past housing policies—such as redlining—have an enduring legacy on urban neighborhoods today, and have contributed to which communities enjoy more trees, less traffic, and better air quality, and which face hazards such as pollution, toxic waste sites, and flooding risk.

    Mar 31, 2022

  • Tool

    Tool

    Environmental Racism: A Tool for Exploring the Enduring Legacy of Redlining on Urban Environments

    Researchers developed an online tool for visualizing the spatial relationships between the discriminatory practice of redlining and exposure to environmental hazards (e.g., pollution, waste sites).

    Mar 31, 2022

  • Wooden human figures with different colors on a dark gray surface, photo by designer491/Getty Images

    Commentary

    Algorithms Teach Us Why Equity Is Hard

    If all the shortcomings of humanity were stripped away, equity would still be an elusive goal for algorithms for reasons that have more to do with mathematical impossibilities than backward ideologies. But even if attaining equity is fundamentally difficult, seeking it is not futile.

    Mar 28, 2022

  • RAND Weekly Recap

    Blog

    Insights on Russia's War in Ukraine, Global Citizenship, Vaccination Equity: RAND Weekly Recap

    This weekly recap focuses on Russia's war on Ukraine, medication treatment for patients with opioid use disorder, promoting global citizenship in America, and more.

    Mar 25, 2022

  • A still frame from a visual story created by V+J. The animation uses a “perpetual zoom” technique to immerse viewers in RAND research about vaccination equity, art by V+J

    Project

    Promoting Vaccination Equity

    RAND's analysis of the Equity-First Vaccination Initiative inspired Juan Delcan and Valentina Izaguirre, the artist team known as V+J, to create a unique visual story about how to support equitable access to COVID-19 information and vaccinations.

    Mar 23, 2022

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