The 2016 election deepened the chasm between those voters who believe that the government should address the problems of the poor and those who are convinced that the government already provides disadvantaged minorities with too much help, at the expense of the white working and middle classes.
While the polarized belief systems that exploded in the battle between Trump and Clinton are driving both policymaking and an invigorated opposition, researchers continue to provide empirical evidence on the difficult issues of race, poverty and intergenerational mobility.
Rucker C. Johnson, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, has followed two generations of black families and concluded that integration has been an effective tool for raising educational levels and living standards.