Justice

40 Years of Chicago's Rising Inequality, in One GIF

A strikingly easy-to-process tale of two cities.

There are many ways to contextualize America's growing economic and racial inequality: through the growth of new tech hubs in old industrial cities, the cost burden of inadequate transit access, or simply by comparing the lowest and highest earners in each region.

In the case of Chicago, this series of maps, which show the disappearing middle class since 1970, may be the most striking and easy-to-process yet: