Renowned author Shelby Steele has consistently maintained that systemic racism is more of a tactic than a reality, and that the widespread oppression of black Americans is mostly a thing of the past. However, the 2014 incident involving the shooting of a black teenager, Michael Brown, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, deeply unsettled the nation. While Steele was examining the events in Ferguson, the country was further shaken by the tragic death of George Floyd. Do these incidents, along with numerous similar cases, challenge Steele’s perspective?