In 2019, black people comprised 13% of the U.S. population and 55% of all murder victims. Roughly 4 percentage points of these victims were killed by whites (including Hispanics). In comparison, white people comprised about 77% of the U.S. population and 42% of all murder victims, 9 percentage points of whom were killed by blacks. These rates have been relatively steady over the past half century, revealing that the vast bulk of murders in the U.S. involve people of the same races killing each other. The U.S. is the third-most populous nation in the world with 330 million people and more than 15,000 murders per year. By focusing on a selected few of these murders, media outlets and politicians often incite racial strife and polarize society.