Faces of Power: 80% Are White, Even as U.S. Becomes More Diverse

While half of the 25 largest police forces are run by people of color, the shootings and killings of Black people by white officers this year are a painful reminder of systemic bias. The rise of people of color to positions of leadership has not been a guarantee against the targeting of marginalized groups.

Almost half of the district attorneys in the cities with the largest police forces are people of color. Jackie Lacey, Los Angeles’s first female and first Black district attorney, has been criticized by the Black Lives Matter movement for resisting efforts to reduce prison populations, which often have disproportionately high numbers of Black and Hispanic people. The group has endorsed Ms. Lacey’s challenger in a closely watched race for November.

In other parts of government and the economy, the lack of diversity in top positions is striking. President Trump’s cabinet is more white and male than any first cabinet since President Ronald Reagan’s.

Since 1789, all but six Supreme Court justices have been white men.

The racial makeup of the Joint Chiefs of Staff stands in stark contrast to that of active-duty members, more than 40 percent of whom are people of color.

Fewer than a quarter of the most valuable public companies are run by people of color, and Black leaders are becoming less represented in these roles. There are now four Black chief executives running Fortune 500 companies, down from six in 2012.

Among the universities ranked in the top 25 by U.S. News and World Report, none are led by Asian or Black academics, and only one school is led by a Hispanic president. While the number of Asian students at elite schools has increased, Black and Hispanic students are less represented than they were a generation ago, government data shows.

The news industry is spread across a range of media. These are the top editors of the six newspapers with the largest circulations, the three major broadcast networks, the three big cable news channels and the websites with the most monthly visitors.

The heads of the so-called Big Five publishers shape literary culture and are responsible for the vast majority of best-selling books.

Collectively, the publications with the largest print and digital audiences reach hundreds of millions of readers a month.

For an industry that owes much of its fortunes to Black artists, there are few executives of color among those who run the three major label conglomerates that account for roughly three-quarters of the market, the six major streaming services and broadcasters, thie three publishers that generate the most revenue and the two concert promoters that put on most shows.

The heads of the five biggest movie studios by box office sales, five streaming services with the largest budgets, five television studios with the most shows in production, five cable channels and four broadcast networks with the highest ratings reflect a trend that pervades Hollywood. White actors dominate screens, and white directors and writers are overrepresented behind the camera.

From luxury brands to department stores, the leadership of fashion brands doesn’t reflect their customer base.

The principal owners of the teams in the country’s three biggest sports leagues are also overwhelmingly white and male, even though the majority of players in the N.F.L. and N.B.A. are people of color. Some players have even questioned the use of the word “owner” because of its slavery connotation.

In the Senate, the 10 freshmen elected in 2018 were all white. There have been only 29 senators of color in history, according to data collected by the Senate. Tim Scott is the first African-American since Reconstruction to represent a Southern state in the Senate.

There are currently no Black governors, and only two Black governors have been elected in American history.

The current class of representatives is the most diverse ever. Nearly all of the freshmen of color are Democrats. Fourteen states, however, have yet to elect a Black, Asian or Hispanic official to Congress, according to historical data collected by the House.