We really need a kind of gigantic systemic overhaul in so much of the country.

Things that seemingly unrelated, but from our educational system, our healthcare system,

like all these things that ultimately culminate in the explosions that we've seen in the past week.

That's Jalani Cobb, a historian and professor of journalism at Columbia University, and a writer for the New Yorker.

He's also reported on issues of policing and race for frontline.

You're never going to have a time where you have bad housing, bad education, you know, poor quality of employment and low wage work, but you have pristine policing.

I talked to Jalani about what recent events mean at this critical moment.

I'm Rainie Aronson, executive producer of Frontline, and this is the Frontline Dispatch.

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So, Jalani, you know, we've been texting over the last few days and we've been discussing what's up, but it's great to finally talk to you, and thanks for joining me on the Dispatch.

Yeah, thank you for having me. I wish there was a more upbeat subject matter today.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, you know, you've covered tensions between the police and the black community for a long time, and I was thinking last night as we were going back and forth that before Minneapolis, there was Baltimore, before Baltimore, there was Ferguson, and goes back decades and hundreds of years.

So, you tweeted this weekend that, you know, and I'll just read your tweet because I found it really profound.

You said, you know, we're in uncharted territory when something happens in Minneapolis, and they're setting cars on fire in Salt Lake City.

What makes this moment different in your mind?

Yeah, I think we've seen quite frankly, maybe I've been jaded, you know, because I've been doing this work for such a long time.

And it's a horrible reality, but we've seen lots of black people die on video.

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