But there are also the Big Questions. Why so much unrest, why now? After all, there are two competing narratives. If you look solely at the abandonment of America's inner cities, the cuts in government aid and social programs, the "war on drugs" and the mass incarceration of young urban males, and deindustrialization of America, and you have to wonder why there was no major unrest sooner, in the 1980s and '90s (with the notable exception of L.A. in 1992). On the other hand, the last fifty years since the end of segregation and major restrictions on black voting in the South have also seen advances in race relations that were unimaginable when Obama was born in 1961. It's not just his 2008 election, although that certainly was what inspired the phrase "post-racial America." In many big cities, reactionary white police chiefs of the Frank Rizzo/William Parker mode are a dim memory, and many folks -- especially your friendly AM talk radio hosts -- were quick to note today that the mayor and police chief in Baltimore are black. The glass of racial progress may be half full now, but in the 1960s -- the heyday of urban unrest -- it had been bone dry.