We have many reasons to despair. Trump threatens to turn the US military against our own people. He urges state governors to “dominate” the protests, encouraging police to use tear gas and rubber bullets on angry crowds instead of trying to calm them down. COVID-19 is still roaring through the country, with the black death rate twice that of whites. Now one-quarter of workers are out of a job, and desperation is surging in all communities but the richest. And police murders of unarmed black people continue, without meaningful consequence. The US has done nothing in decades to fight structural racism.

Reasons to hope are not so easy to see, but important to recognize. Unlike the protests in the ’60s, crowds are diverse in age, gender, and color. Unlike the police of that era, some — not enough, but some — police understand and support the protests. At the bottom of this piece, you’ll find heartening examples.

It is perfectly clear what changes this country has to make. We have to toss all the Republicans out of office, not just Trump. Almost without exception, they ignore the terrible harm he does in return for low tax rates for the rich. Once they’re gone, we must take money out of the biggest military budget on earth and put it into public education, affordable housing, health care for all, and fighting climate change. We can never heal all the damage done by slavery and the centuries of racism that followed. But we can make it easier for black communities to build housing, businesses, and healthy environments. We can legislate deep changes in the ways police interact with black people, through hiring, training, practices, and communication with the people they’re supposed to serve and protect.

We can end bail. We can end mass incarceration. We can release nonviolent offenders. We can build services to help former prisoners return to their lives. And we can fund reparations. Capitalism only works if you have capital. Never in the history of black people in America have they had the kind of access to capital white people have. We can change that, if we will.

The protests are making many more people aware that racism is at least as active, widespread, and deadly as the corona virus. The protesters are telling us that we must fight racism the way we fought the Nazis in World War II: with all our resources, all our people, and all our hearts.