Up to a point, Race and Reckoning includes a fantastic overview of the role of race within American history and how African Americans have been systemically denied opportunities and equality within American society. For the first three quarters of the book, Cose recounts American history from the colonial era through the Nixon campaign's "Southern Strategy". Cose expertly points out how discrimination has been built into the foundations of America.

However, the final quarter of Cose's book jumps from the Nixon campaign to modern day, focusing on the Trump presidency predominantly. By doing this, Cose, fails to mention a number of important events or developments in the story of race in America: the War of Drugs, the Reagan administration, the Clinton administration and the Crime Bill, Ferguson and the rise of the Black Live Matter Movements.

While no book can cover every event in American history, and certainly this book is attempting to create a broad overview that the average reader can engage with, leaving such a massive chunk of American history out of the analysis makes for an incomplete retelling of the African American story in the United States.