Great article, but one criticism: It’s not a “poor Black problem”, but a poverty problem.

Look at your map of the homicide rate in Mississippi. The homicide rates are certainly high in the dirt-poor majority-Black Delta where I grew up. But most of the other counties with equally-high rates in Mississippi are majority-White.

What’s more, West Virginia has one of the highest homicide rates…but WV is very White…and poor. You’d find the same dynamic if you included maps in Alaska.

For those reasons, I recommend an edit to your article.