U.S. Census Bureau figures for 2010 report that Duluth is 90.4% white, making it one of the whitest communities in the United States. African Americans made up 2.3% of the population, Native Americans 2.5% and Latinos 1.5%.

 While the city is known to be strongly progressive, ugly racist incidents are regularly reported in the press. 

Racist incidents:

March 2015--Two white Denfield High students took a photo of a fellow black student, photoshopped a noose around his or her neck and added the caption “Gotta hang 'em all” and then circulated the photo via social media. The local NAACP chapter organized a community discussion of the incident on Mar. 19 at Community Action Duluth. According to a DNT article, more than 100 people took part in the discussion.