I listened to the first act of This American Life this evening. The episode is about the mood in the country and the protests that are happening. The narrator was wondering: why now? This has been happening for a long time. So why are whites getting all excited this time over something that blacks have been dealing with their whole lives?

I think I have an answer. Maybe not the answer. But something that I observed.

First was the white dog walker who called the police on a black bird watcher. The dog walker made it seem to the police that the black man was attacking her. And , listening to her on the phone, she’s a pretty good actress. She knew how to play the game. And she honestly seemed to think the police would arrest the black man, who had done nothing.

Here was a blatant example of manipulation at work. No one could ignore the game a the woman was playing.

Then came the video of George Floyd, the man approached by the police for passing a counterfeit $20 Bill. For that minor crime, one white police officer takes Mr. Floyd, a black man, and holds him down with his knee on the man’s neck for about 8-1/2 minutes. The man is saying, “I can’t breathe,” but the officer doesn’t stop until he has killed him.

Both of these incidents were blatant racism. Even the densest among us could see that. So many times, it has been easy for armchair quarterbacks to put a different spin on incidents. It is nigh to impossible to do that in these situations.

And the mood of the current time doesn’t help. So many Americans are getting sick and dying from the coronavirus, and we get no help from the federal government. In fact, the president said this past week, at a rally, that he told his staff to scale back the testing for the virus, because testing was running up the numbers of sick people.

Worse, the man encourages racist behavior. His cruel, insensitive remarks have encouraged hate crimes in this country.

So people are looking to a way to direct their anger. And it’s been handed to them on a silver platter.

But I remember the race riots of the 60’s. I remember the Black Panthers. I remember Martin Luther King. I remember the Civil Rights Act. My hope is that the protests continue until we see some real, permanent changes.