A shift in the wind?

Here's hoping America doesn't forget again, now that George Floyd is in the ground. Here's hoping he's not Philando Castile or Walter Scott or Sandra Bland or those many other wronged names around whom righteous anger coalesced for a time as America promised to do better, and then forgot its promise.

Here's hoping it's different this time. Feels so, anyway.

Take this photo here.

It's a photo of a white man in a firesuit and a Bastard Plague mask, holding up an I Can't Breathe/Black Lives Matter T-shirt. He's doing this in Atlanta, Ga., in the very aorta of the old Confederacy. And he's doing this at a NASCAR race, in the very aorta of a sport that was at its inception a blaring revival of that Confederacy, good ol' boys making up for Gettysburg by hauling ass in liquor cars.

 A man holding up an I Can't Breathe/Black Lives Matter T-shirt in that NASCAR might not have seen sunset. But on Sunday?

On Sunday he was part of the crew for Bubba Wallace, an African-American who wore the shirt while the national anthem rang out.

On Sunday he was part of a spectacle that included NASCAR official Kirk Price, also an African-American, kneeling with his head bowed and his fist in the air during that same anthem.

And on Sunday, there was the president of NASCAR, Steve Phelps, addressing drivers and fans about racial injustice and how we all needed to "do better."

I can't say if that's the winds of change stirring. Or if it's even the suggestion of a breeze.

Confederate flags, after all, still fly in the parking lots and campgrounds outside NASCAR venues, with everything that implies. It remains a sport with an overwhelmingly white fan base and an overwhelmingly white workforce. And it remains a sport whose fans' sensibilities overwhelmingly ally (although maybe not as much now) with the white supremacy winkers in Our Only Available Impeached President's administration.

Had there actually been fans in the stands in Atlanta, you no doubt would have heard more than a scattering of boos when Bubba Wallace broke out his T-shirt and Kirk Price knelt and Steve Phelps spoke. So there's that.

There's also a whiff of pandering in all this -- of NASCAR, like every massive entertainment vehicle, jumping on the bandwagon to protect its market share.

But. But.

But NASCAR stands to alienate far more fans than it brings to the table by embracing the cause of racial injustice, even if superficially. And it does seem to be more than superficial in this case.

So there's that, too.

I can't say if the winds of change, or even the breezes, are blowing. But. But.

But NASCAR is speaking out against racial injustice.

But black Americans and white Americans and, yes, even police officers, are marching together in the streets.

But the other day I opened my news feed, and there were photos from Martinsville, In., of a Black Lives Matter rally there.

Martinsville: A place so notorious for its racist culture across the years that IU students of color routinely have been warned never to stop there if they can help it. A place whose grim reputation has been well-earned and always precedes it.

It's different this time.

Maybe. Finally.