Biography
Tracy Jan covers the intersection of race and the economy for The Washington Post, a beat she launched in December 2016 that encompasses racial economic disparities, immigration, housing policy and other stories that hold businesses and politicians accountable for their decisions and promises. Her work has delved deeply into reparations for slavery, systemic racism in America, and the economic and health impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Black, Asian, Latino and immigrant communities.
She previously was a Washington-based national political reporter for the Boston Globe, where she covered the 2016 and 2012 presidential campaigns, the impact of policy and political rhetoric on voters and communities across the country, political dysfunction, and lobbying by New England’s hospitals and universities.
During her 12 years at the Globe, Jan had also written about health and science policy, higher education, and Boston Public Schools. She started her career as a crime and courts reporter at the Oregonian and was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, as well as a Fulbright Fellow in Taiwan. She has reported from Taipei, Beijing, Tibet and along the Yangtze River.
Articles, Publications, and Appearances
- The striking race gap in corporate America: A small fraction of top executives are Black — and the people tapped to fix it often struggle to boost inclusion. (December 15, 2021)
- Corporate America’s $50 billion promise: A Post analysis of racial justice pledges after George Floyd’s death reveals the limits of corporate power to effect change. (August 23, 2021)
- Asian American businesses are defending themselves against rise in anti-Asian violence: There’s an economic cost to racism as business owners reduce hours, shell out for security in the wake of the Atlanta shootings (March 25, 2021)
- The ‘whitewashing’ of Black Wall Street: A century after the Tulsa massacre, Black entrepreneurs in the city’s Greenwood district feel threatened with erasure yet again, amid demands for reparations. (January 17, 2021)
- Segregated from opportunity: Nearly three decades after George Floyd first left Cuney Homes, another generation tries to make it out of Houston’s oldest housing project. (Washington Post, October 15, 2020)
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Minority entrepreneurs were reclaiming their communities — then the pandemic came: Coronavirus recession could accelerate gentrification in Los Angeles’s Chinatown, Boyle Heights and South L.A. (Washington Post, July 31, 2020)
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‘This is what happens to us.’: The slow release of statistics on the virus’s effect based on race was an early flare that the response to the disease would follow familiar racial lines. (Washington Post, June 3, 2020)
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Asian American doctors and nurses are fighting racism and the coronavirus: Asian Americans are reporting a sharp increase in racist verbal abuse and physical attacks, as the coronavirus death toll mounts. (Washington Post, May 19, 2020)
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In South Carolina, anti-poverty program is recast as reparations: South Carolina congressman James Clyburn proposed a race-neutral anti-poverty program a decade ago. Presidential candidates recast it as compensation for slavery. (Washington Post, February 24, 2020)
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What reparations mean to one American family: Reparations mean more than money for a family whose story includes slavery and Japanese American internment. (Washington Post, January 25, 2020)
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After prison, a lifetime of economic punishment: Occupational licensing laws can block the formerly incarcerated from a stable career (Washington Post, September 3, 2019)
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The Forgotten Ferguson – Four years after Michael Brown was shot, the Ferguson neighborhood where he was killed still feels left behind: Only a fraction of the pledges for Ferguson reached the neediest parts of town. All the corporate goodwill – and millions in investments — were not enough to overcome a long legacy of racial discrimination and economic exclusion. (Washington Post, June 21, 2018)
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He helped Halle Berry and Taraji Henson to stardom. Now 9 minority women are accusing him of sexual harassment. (Washington Post, February 2, 2018)