At the time I am writing this review, the United States is experiencing large-scale protests condemning the murder of unarmed African Americans. Just six years after the Black Lives Matter movement gained significant momentum, stories of African Americans such as Breonna Taylor and George Floyd being killed by police lead people to wonder why this keeps happening. The answer to this question could be key to ending the cyclical nature of violence against people of color in this nation.

Henry Flores addresses this important problem in his 2019 book Race, Latinos, and the Public Policy Process. In this book, Flores explores how racial ideologies built into the political system in the United States influence the public policy process. The book accomplishes this goal by thoroughly analyzing the development of the state, political ideologies, and policy. The book uses both theoretical discussions and empirical analyses of voting policy, gun policy, and immigration policy to provide a better understanding of how political systems perpetuate racial biases.

The book begins with a detailed examination of racism. In this examination, Flores disaggregates the factors that make up racial prej