The testers reported racially disparate treatment in 40 percent of interactions with realtors. Black testers experienced disparate treatment in 49 percent of cases, Hispanic testers in 39 percent and Asian testers in 19 percent. Some realtors refused to show listings or conduct house tours for minority testers, others steered them away from predominantly white neighborhoods. They warned white testers away from black or Hispanic neighborhoods while also showing more listings and allowing them to see homes without proof of mortgage-ready financing.

This was one investigation in one part of the country with a specific history of housing discrimination and racism. But a similar study from 2012 — conducted by the Urban Institute and the Department of Housing and Urban Development — showed nationwide patterns of housing discrimination. After conducting 8,000 tests in a representative sample of 28 metropolitan areas, researchers found that, compared with whites, black renters and home buyers were shown substantially fewer units, as were, to a lesser extent, Asian-Americans and Hispanics.

Discrimination is common, not just in housing, but in employment as well. Fifty-six percent of black Americans, 33 percent of Hispanics and 27 percent of Asian-Americans said they experienced racial discrimination when applying for jobs, according to a 2017 survey by NPR and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Their self-reporting is backed by data. A 2017 meta-analysis of field experiments on racial discrimination found that for black Americans, discrimination has been static — there has been no change since 1989. Whites still receive more than a third more callbacks for jobs, even after accounting for education, local labor market conditions and other factors.

Not every instance of workplace discrimination is reported to authorities — far from it. But it’s not for nothing that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency tasked with tackling unfair treatment in the labor market, has received hundreds of thousands of complaints of racial discrimination at workplaces since 2010.