A quick warning.
There are curse words that are unbeeped in today's episode of the show.
If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org.
It'S this American Life.
I'm Chana Joffe.
Walt, sitting in for Ira Glass.
Last fall, I saw this video from a high school in Michigan.
And maybe it wouldn't have stayed with me in the way that it has if it weren't for all the many things that have happened since then that.
That keep reminding me of this video.
It's turned into a sort of reference point in my head for a dynamic I keep seeing repeated.
The video is from September 2021, last fall in Michigan, about 20 miles outside Ann Arbor.
It's early morning, right before the school day.
A group of parents and their high schoolers are kind of loosely crowded around the door to a school.
A mostly white crowd.
There's a police officer with top gun sunglasses.
You're gonna go in the building.
You have to have a mask on.
And what would be the repercussions if they don't have a mask?
If you don't.
If the officer is calmly, one might say, patronizingly repeating.