This paper studies the impact of racial representation in local government on individual migration decisions, public goods provision, and residential segregation. By combining individual-level migration data with closely contested mayoral elections, the analysis shows that electing a Black mayor reduces the amenities disparity between majority-Black and white neighborhoods and increases the overall population in majority-Black neighborhoods. The population increase is primarily attributed to decreased out-migration by both Black and white residents. The net effect of these changes is an increase in racial segregation, driven by the greater concentration of Black individuals in majority-Black neighborhoods.

This paper provides novel evidence that exposure to children’s media can lead to long-term reductions in prejudice and increased support for demographically diverse political candidates. Sesame Street’s positive representation of minority characters, egalitarian minority-white interactions, and working women was distinctive in the media landscape of 1969 when it launched and quickly became wildly popular. Leveraging technological variation in broadcast reception and cohort exposure, we find that cohorts exposed to high Sesame Street coverage levels are 4.2 percentage points more likely to vote. They have lower measures of racial biases, and report more votes for minority and women candidates for the U.S. House – by 8.1 and 5.8 percentage points, respectively. While voting increased slightly more for Democrats–whose candidates are more diverse–turnout gains are split between both parties on ballots where both candidates are white men.

We draw on statewide data from North Carolina to examine the impacts of racial and ethnic representation in city councils on policing. Specifically, we focus on outcomes of traffic stops; e.g., whether a driver receives a warning or a citation after being stopped. We first document large Black-white and Latino-white disparities in the likelihood of consequence (arrest or citation) after a traffic stop. We then use a difference-in-differences design, focusing on changes following (narrow) elections of nonwhite (rather than white) councilmembers, and find that increased nonwhite council representation significantly reduces Black-white gaps in stops and actions taken after a stop. The magnitude of the reduction is similar with and without officer fixed effects, suggesting that results are largely driven by individual officer-level behavior change rather than a change in the composition of the police force.

This paper examines how racial animus responds to the presence and performance of minority star athletes, namely Black quarterbacks in the National Football League (NFL), a highly salient media environment that is central to national and regional identities in the United States. We study how exposure to Black quarterbacks shapes racial hostility in both the short-run – right around game day, and the long-run – over the course of a season. A game day event-study design identifies two mechanisms: racial blame and racial salience. We find a racial blame effect in emotionally charged upset games: relative to white-quarterback matchups, upset losses by local Black quarterbacks increase in anti-Black hate crime rates by 72%, while upset wins reduce them by -48%. Similar patterns are observed for online hate speech and implicit biases. No such blaming is directed toward opposition Black quarterbacks. We also document a racial salience effect: in non-upset games, exposure to any Black quarterback increases hate crimes by 35% regardless of game outcome. In the long-run, sustained exposure to low-performing local Black quarterback teams has limited effects while exposure to high-performing championship level Black quarterback teams leads to persistent reductions in racial hostility. Anti-Black hate crimes fall by -67%, google searches for racial slurs drop by -0.123 sd, hate speech indicators fall by -42%, and implicit biases drop by -0.035 sd. We find no evidence that increased exposure to opposing Black quarterbacks leads to persistent long-run increases in racial animus. Overall, highly visibility minority athletes can shift racial attitudes, but effects are performance-dependent.