How should Americans address the issue of systemic racism, how can we change? John Thomas: It’s such a heavy and complex issue that goes deeper than even we all know. As Black people in this country, the systemic oppression and the trauma that was associated with the generations of our family members, knowing that research and studies have been done on the trauma and how that ultimately effects [and] really changes the DNA of the people that are traumatized. When you start to call those things into attention, you start to think about what that means. Then you start to understand systematically—with local policies such as redlining, blockbusting, and what that means for communities just based upon not being able to receive the type of loans that are necessary—it has an effect on the individual, which then ultimately spills over into the family, and this has been happening for years.