As a white person coming from the UK to the US, I noticed a stark contrast in black participation in society between the two countries. While not claiming Britain is perfect, my metropolitan southern experience included a lot of black people on an equal or senior footing on various axes of professional, financial, social, etc. That experience simply didn't carry across to the major east coast city I moved to. It is unusual for me to interact with black people at client meetings, in my middle class neighborhood, when I need professional advice from a doctor or a lawyer, really anywhere other than public transport or as a customer of a service function.
While I can't discount that my ignorance of any racial tension around non white people in England was a simple function of youthful naivety, I'm absolutely more aware of 'difference' now I live in the US and I'm a lot less comfortable as a result.
In short, it's obvious to me on a superficial level that the black experience in the USA is pretty bad, but this article is a deeper look at something that's quite hard to confront.