On Jan. 27, the Memphis police department released footage showing five of its officers brutally beating a young black man, Tyre Nichols, who later died of his injuries. The officers—all fired and charged with second-degree murder—were themselves each black, but that didn’t stop activists like Al Sharpton from attributing Nichols’ death to his skin color, or prevent protesters across the country from carrying signs emblazoned with slogans like “Stop the war on black America!”
Thankfully, most protests were peaceful, a far cry from the wave of violence unleashed by the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Nevertheless, they still highlighted unsettling trends in the continued fraying of America’s social fabric.