Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 95% certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Powers: Post-Ferguson study showed white social networks are over 90% white

Laura Weidman Powers · a16z Podcast | If Coding is the New Literacy, How Can More People Code? · Jan 2, 2019 · at 31:12

Laura Weidman Powers, co-founder of Code 2040, discusses structural network homogeneity and its impact on referral-based tech hiring.

0:00 / 0:12exact quote · 12.9s

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“Our social networks statistically speaking, are pretty homogenous. There was a really amazing study published after Ferguson showing that white people's social networks are 90 plus percent white.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

Laura Weidman Powers states that a study published after Ferguson showed white people's social networks in the United States are over 90 percent white.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

The statement is accurate. On August 28, 2014, less than three weeks after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) published a study titled 'Race and Americans' Social Networks'. The study found that white Americans' core social networks were on average 91% white (with 75% reporting having entirely white social networks). This study and its findings were widely reported in major media outlets in late 2014 in the context of post-Ferguson racial divisions.

PRRI published 'Race and Americans' Social Networks' on August 28, 2014, shortly following the August 9, 2014 events in Ferguson, MO.
The PRRI analysis determined that the average white American's core social network was 91% white, matching the speaker's assertion of '90 plus percent white.'
Major outlets including The Washington Post covered these exact findings in November 2014 directly connecting the data to the aftermath of Ferguson.

Checked against

[1] washingtonpost.com [2] prri.org [3] brookings.edu [4] prri.org [5] prri.org

PRRI study white social networks 90 percent white 2014 Ferguson

assessed as of 2026-08-27

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

Ferguson Laura Weidman Powers

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