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Editor's Note: Marcus Mabry is Vice President of Global Programming for CNN Digital. He covered the presidency of Nelson Mandela as head of the Africa office for Newsweek. He is the author of "Twice as Good: Condoleezza Rice and Her Path to Power" and "White Bucks and Black-eyed Peas: Coming of Age Black in White America". The opinions in this comment are yours. See more opinion columns at CNNe.com/opinion
(CNN) - Remember when "Black Lives Matter" was still considered somewhat controversial?
On Friday, Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the National Football League, responded to the demands of black NFL players and spoke out against racism. "We, the National Soccer League, admit that we were wrong not to listen to NFL players sooner and we encourage everyone to speak up and protest peacefully," Goodell said. "We, the NFL, believe that black lives matter."
It can be mind-blowing to think that it was once a controversial phrase. But it was, just two weeks ago.
What changed?
That's what one of my 10-year-old sons asked when I explained what all the press coverage was about. In the two weeks since George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police, whites have joined growing protests across the country, demanding an end to systemic racism. Former President George W. Bush issued a statement acknowledging that white supremacy is alive and well in the United States, and that we must kill it. "The doctrine and habits of racial superiority, which once nearly divided our country, still threaten our union." The symbols that have been the source of racial pain for generations and of intense debate for decades are suddenly removed: Confederate statues, Confederate flags and the Sambo restaurant.
I told my son that I thought technology made a difference; Now that there are cell phone videos of blacks meaninglessly killed by the police, more white people seem to believe that happens. People around the world have seen the video showing a white police officer kneeling on Floyd's neck when Floyd said, "I can't breathe." Millions witnessed his body weaken as passersby urged police to stop holding Floyd on the ground.
Floyd's death was also just one in a series of several others. Ahmaud Arbery was killed while running, in what his lawyer says is being investigated as a federal hate crime; Breonna Taylor, who would have turned 27 on Friday, was an emergency medical technician who was killed in his own apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, by police officers executing a search warrant without calling.
These devastating losses stemmed from a global pandemic, which disproportionately took black lives. Blacks and other underserved communities suffer disproportionately from health conditions that can make a diagnosis of covid-19 fatal and from long-standing inequities in medical care. George Floyd was also one of the millions of people who lost their jobs in the economic turmoil caused by the virus.
Still, innocent black people have been killed by the police before, and many other videos have gone viral. Even my 10 year old son, who knew these facts, seemed puzzled by the white world that suddenly woke up to his reality.
And that is the debate among blacks: is this a paroxysm of outrage that will fade like so many previous social trends? Or is it really possible that we may be experiencing a moment of fundamental social change?
As former President Barack Obama and Reverend Al Sharpton have both pointed out, things feel different this time. Why?
White people now seem less inclined to debate whether there is racism in America, as most have done for most of my life; they are demanding that it end. Now it seems less likely that whites question whether there is police brutality, as most have done all my life; they are simply demanding that it end.
I remember South Africa in the years before Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, after serving a 27-year sentence. I also see glimpses of the United States Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Black abuse in the South and outrage at it led to real change, including the end of Jim Crow and the deprivation of people's rights. black, along with the extension of the rule of law to include all Americans.
But the mistreatment and murder of black people has been going on for almost 200 years of American democracy and centuries before independence. What changed during the Civil Rights Movement was the white people's tolerance of this mistreatment. It was white outrage that led to the change.
Last week all the companies I have a relationship with sent me emails affirming their commitment to fighting racism - that includes banks, software companies, kids' camps, and appliance stores. Everyone from housewives to former presidents say white supremacy must end. People march in the big cities of the United States, as well as in the small towns. And protesters have shown their support from Sydney to Bratislava.
The changes in South Africa and the southern United States required a change of mind in whites. This new fight against racism will also require the support of whites. If our eyes and ears are believed, many are taking responsibility and demanding it of themselves and their neighbors.
Will that demand for change last? Will it eliminate inequalities from the classroom to the boardroom to the newsroom?
The first time I told my twins the story of how the United States became a nation, they were five years old. As the three of us sat on a New York playground, I cried as I told them about a multitude of farmers and workers who took over the world's largest empire and, against all odds, won.
Years later, I told them the story of slavery. Then I told them about Jim Crow. They know all of that now. The son I was talking to about George Floyd had just finished a fifth-grade article on the rule of law throughout America's history. He had chosen as his main sentence: “The rule of law, or equality before the law, is part of our society; however, it is a lie. ” He submitted his final draft on May 28, three days after George Floyd's death.
Blacks, some as young as 10 years old, are understandably skeptical that our nation will deliver on its promise of equality. These are not systems and institutions that are easily changed. And the trauma of 400 years of soul-destroying racism is not easily forgotten: some researchers believe it is imprinted on our DNA. And we are all too aware of the frustrated promises of the past, from liberation to Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement.
But the change is coming. History teaches us that. He arrived in South Africa. It came to the southern United States.
Is this our moment? Do you dare believe it?