There was no racial reckoning

We've heard a lot about a "racial reckoning" since the Floyd protests last summer. But the phrase has become a rhetorical decoy, a way to avoid facing the deepest problems about race in America.

I keep seeing that phrase pop up in news stories. I hear politicians and CEOs use the term as if there's no doubt it's true. I even put the phrase in one of my own headlines without ever asking myself what a racial reckoning meant. It's hard to avoid using that phrase, because it reflects a consensus. Nearly a year after the death of George Floyd, many Americans routinely describe the protests that followed last summer as a singular, racially transformative moment.