It has been an ominous time in the United States. COVID‐19, coupled with an increasingly out‐of‐control Chief Executive, has demoralized much of the country (Lebow, 2020a, 2020b). A shining exception to this sense of demoralization has been the increased focus on Black Lives Matter. Founded in 2013, Black Lives Matter, in the context of recent widely disseminated police violence against Black people, has engendered a shared growing sense that change must come now in the ways Black people are dealt with in policing and criminal justice. Additionally, the movement has more broadly focused attention on the lived experience of Black people and how systemic racism in American society can be addressed.

The problems faced by Black families in the United States have long been clearly identified and spelled out in the pages of this journal and others like it. These problems are highlighted in two formidable papers in this issue by Marlene Watson, William Turner, and Paulette Hines (Watson, Turner, & Hines, 2020) and Shalonda Kelly, Gihane Jeremie‐Brink, Anthony Chambers, and Mia Smith‐Bynum (Kelly et al., 2020), as well as in other recent articles in this journal (Anderson, McKenny, & Stevenson, 2019; Watson, 2019; Watson, Bacigalupe, Daneshpour, Han, & Parra‐Cardona, 2020). Kelly et al. (2020) and Watson, Turner, and Hines (2020) comprehensively speak to pervasive systemic factors that have been and continue to be involved in perpetuating these issues. There has been a long and deep tradition of racism in the United States, which has resulted in Black families being marginalized in an unchanging way over many generations. A now vast social science literature shows that Black families are subject to far more stress and disadvantage across virtually every economic and health indicator. That is, they have less wealth than other families, struggle more with poverty and related issues of food insecurity, often attend the worst rated primary and high schools, have the highest levels of unemployment, and suffer the highest levels of morbidity and mortality (Hardy, 2019a, 2019b; Hines, 2016). When they encounter police, they are treated in ways that are clearly different than other Americans, resulting in differences in the frequency of being stopped for investigation, arrest rates, conviction rates, and injury and death in these encounters than other groups. Compared to other countries with evolved social service and criminal justice systems, the apathy of the United States in relation to these problems has bordered on criminal. Further, as documented in our recent section about COVID‐19 and families (Fraenkel & Cho, 2020; Watson, Bacigalupe et al., 2020), COVID‐19 has been particularly harsh for Black people: Their level of unemployment during COVID‐19 is higher than that of others, their exposure to the disease higher, their health care and health outcomes worse, and the indirect impact on aspects of life such as food security greater (Yancy, 2020).

Black Lives Matter has gained this level of broad attention primarily due a particularly heinous recent series of episodes of police violence against Black people in the context of new technologies which make dissemination of these events instantaneous and visceral. Widely available portable video recording, 24‐hour news channels, and ever‐present social media have exposed incidents of police violence in ways that only those with the greatest levels of denial can look away. Earlier, newspapers occasionally highlighted such events, as did movies (e.g., “Fruitville Station” focused on the murder of Oscar Grant), and songs (e.g., Bruce Springsteen’s “41 shots” inspired by the shooting of Amadou Diallo), but it has been different when the nation has been confronted with widely circulated videos of police violence and murder. Prominent voices from the Black community and others have focused greater attention on the lives of Black Americans. There have been many such eloquent voices, and these voices have resonated with socially conscious young people throughout the country.

It is only humbly that as the White editor of Family Process I can speak to these issues. The abhorrent history of slavery, followed by Jim Crow, and all the additional painful history recounted by Kelly et al. (2020) and Watson, Turner et al. (2020), though repugnant to most people today, certainly must carry different meanings to those with that history of oppression and with those legacies in their families of origin (Hines & Boyd‐Franklin, 2005; Wilkerson, 2020). As a Jewish person myself, I am the product of another sort of history of persecution, but that story has notable differences, and skin color is a unique way of discriminating between peoples. No other group has this consistent a history of mistreatment and discrimination in the United States. So it goes in a world where other lives seem to matter institutionally more than Black Lives.

And today there also are those energized in opposition to the core ideas of Black Lives Matter. Donald Trump, in his campaign version of the Munich rallies, bombards his followers with countercomplaints about how police lives matter, with emphasis on the threat of the few who suggest violence against all police and irrational anxieties about what he calls “unamerican” racial sensitivity training. This ugly, regressive position evident over the last four years has promoted the unleashing of a more overt, in‐your‐face old‐fashioned racism in public display in one sector of American society. Although this clearly is a minority position, it has become once again a much more vocal one.

Fortunately, younger people appear to be moving toward a post‐racial consciousness even as these regressive voices become so prominent, and society is becoming much more multiracial. So, here is the hope: That by the time this is read a new American president and Congress will at least for a time silence the voices of and forces toward bigotry. That Black Lives Matter will really come to mean that they do matter. That each of us will outwardly and inwardly struggle with our conscious and unconscious racism as we collectively address structural racism in all areas of life. That each academic, clinical, and training program in our field will take up the charge to examine our own attitudes and policies. That family programs will expand their efforts to help families to deal with internalized racism. That the work of all couple, family, and systemic therapists will be infused with an overarching commitment to social justice (McDowell, Knudson‐Martin, & Bermudez, 2019). That bodies of research will continue to evolve that not only expose these trends but also find ways to ameliorate them. That family policy will come to support Black families and that policies in places such as policing and criminal justice will change. That we will each carefully read the articles in this issue by Kelly et al. (2020) and Watson, Turner, & Hines (2020) and learn from them and follow their recommendations in our work and our lives. And that the next time an overtly racist candidate for public office comes forward, that will disqualify that person from consideration. We must digest the woeful American legacy around this and set a path to a different future.

在美国，这是一个不祥的时期。COVID-19 加上越来越失控的首席执行官，使该国大部分地区士气低落（Lebow，2020a，2020b）。这种士气低落感的一个显着例外是人们越来越关注黑人的命也是命。Black Lives Matter 成立于 2013 年，在最近广泛传播的针对黑人的警察暴力的背景下，产生了一种共同的日益增长的感觉，即现在必须在警务和刑事司法中处理黑人的方式发生变化。此外，该运动更广泛地关注黑人的生活经历以及如何解决美国社会的系统性种族主义问题。

美国黑人家庭面临的问题早就在本杂志和其他类似杂志的页面中得到了明确的识别和阐述。Marlene Watson、William Turner 和 Paulette Hines（Watson、Turner 和 Hines，2020 年）和 Shalonda Kelly、Gihane Jeremie-Brink、Anthony Chambers 和 Mia Smith-Bynum（Kelly等人，2020 年），以及本期刊最近的其他文章（Anderson、McKenny 和 Stevenson，2019 年；Watson，2019 年；Watson、Bacigalupe、Daneshpour、Han 和 Parra-Cardona，2020 年）。凯利等人。（2020 年）和沃森、特纳和海因斯（2020 年）) 全面阐述已经并将继续涉及这些问题的普遍存在的系统性因素。美国有着悠久而深厚的种族主义传统，这导致黑人家庭几代人都以不变的方式被边缘化。现在大量的社会科学文献表明，黑人家庭在几乎所有经济和健康指标上都面临更大的压力和劣势。也就是说，他们比其他家庭拥有更少的财富，更多地与贫困和相关的粮食不安全问题作斗争，经常上最差的小学和高中，失业率最高，发病率和死亡率最高（哈代, 2019a , 2019b ; 海因斯, 2016）。当他们遇到警察时，他们受到的对待方式显然与其他美国人不同，导致他们在这些遭遇中被拦截调查的频率、逮捕率、定罪率以及伤亡人数与其他群体不同。与其他社会服务和刑事司法系统不断发展的国家相比，美国对这些问题的冷漠已接近刑事犯罪。此外，正如我们最近关于 COVID-19 和家庭的部分所述（Fraenkel & Cho，2020 年；Watson、Bacigalupe 等人，2020 年）)，COVID-19 对黑人特别苛刻：他们在 COVID-19 期间的失业率高于其他人，他们接触疾病的机会更高，他们的医疗保健和健康结果更差，以及对生活，例如粮食安全更大（Yancy，2020）。

Black Lives Matter 之所以获得如此广泛的关注，主要是因为最近在新技术的背景下发生了一系列特别令人发指的针对黑人的警察暴力事件，这些事件使这些事件的传播变得即时和发自内心。广泛使用的便携式录像、24 小时新闻频道和无处不在的社交媒体以一种只有最坚决否认的人才能将目光移开的方式揭露了警察的暴力事件。早些时候，报纸偶尔会强调此类事件，电影（例如，聚焦奥斯卡格兰特谋杀案的“Fruitville Station”）和歌曲（例如，布鲁斯·斯普林斯汀（Bruce Springsteen）受阿马杜·迪亚洛（Amadou Diallo）枪击案启发的“41 枪”）也是如此。当这个国家面临广为流传的警察暴力和谋杀视频时，情况就不一样了。来自黑人社区和其他人的突出声音更加关注美国黑人的生活。已经有很多这样雄辩的声音，这些声音在全国有社会意识的年轻人中引起了共鸣。

作为家庭进程的怀特编辑，我只能虚心谈谈这些问题。奴隶制的可恶历史，紧随其后的是吉姆·克劳，以及凯利等人讲述的所有额外的痛苦历史。（2020 年）和沃森、特纳等人。（2020 年）虽然对今天的大多数人来说令人反感，但对于那些有压迫历史的人以及在他们的原生家庭中留下遗产的人来说，肯定具有不同的含义（海因斯和博伊德-富兰克林，2005 年；威尔克森，2020 年））。作为一个犹太人，我是另一种迫害历史的产物，但那个故事有着显着的差异，肤色是一种独特的民族区分方式。在美国，没有其他群体有过这种一贯的虐待和歧视历史。因此，在这样一个世界中，其他生命在制度上似乎比黑人生命更重要。

今天也有一些人反对黑人的命也是命的核心思想。唐纳德特朗普在慕尼黑集会的竞选版本中，用反诉来轰炸他的追随者关于警察生活的重要性，并强调少数人对所有警察实施暴力的威胁以及对他所谓的“非美国”种族敏感性训练的非理性焦虑. 这种丑陋的、倒退的立场在过去四年中显而易见，促使美国社会的一个部门在公开展示中释放出一种更公开的、面对面的老式种族主义。虽然这显然是少数派立场，但它再次成为一个更加直言不讳的立场。

幸运的是，即使这些倒退的声音变得如此突出，而且社会变得更加多元化，但年轻人似乎正在走向后种族意识。所以，这是希望：当阅读本文时，一位新的美国总统和国会将至少在一段时间内压制偏执的声音和力量。黑人的命也是命真的意味着他们确实很重要。当我们在生活的所有领域共同解决结构性种族主义时，我们每个人都会向外和向内与我们有意识和无意识的种族主义作斗争。我们领域的每个学术、临床和培训计划都将负责检查我们自己的态度和政策。家庭计划将扩大他们的努力，以帮助家庭应对内化的种族主义。所有夫妻、家庭的工作，2019 年）。研究机构将继续发展，不仅揭示这些趋势，而且还找到改善它们的方法。该家庭政策将支持黑人家庭，而警务和刑事司法等地方的政策将发生变化。我们将每个人都仔细阅读凯利等人在本期中的文章。（2020 年）和 Watson、Turner 和 Hines（2020 年）并向他们学习，并在我们的工作和生活中遵循他们的建议。并且下次公职公职候选人出现明显的种族主义时，将取消该人的考虑资格。我们必须消化围绕这一点的可悲的美国遗产，并为不同的未来开辟道路。