The Big Story: Protest and Policing in America

Protests have swept the nation this week in the wake of more killings of black Americans by police.

In his latest piece for The Atlantic, Ibram X. Kendi, director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University and contributing writer at The Atlantic, examines this fraught moment and its deep roots in American history.

“Black Americans are constantly stepping into the souls of the dead,” he writes. “Because they know: They could have been them; they are them. Because they know it is dangerous to be black in America, because racist Americans see blacks as dangerous.”

Kendi joined Yoni Appelbaum, a historian and senior editor at The Atlantic, for a live conversation about policing, protests, and this moment in history.