As a family therapist, I had long experience in trying to develop empathy for the couples and families who were my clients. Empathy requires imagination — what are the life circumstances of these people? Can I translate from my own life into identifying with, and caring about, what someone else is experiencing?

Now as I see the anguish of African-American people pouring out onto our streets and being brought into our living rooms by news interviews, I feel deeply moved by these outpourings of despair and pain. The brutal murder of George Floyd — horrible in itself — has spoken t...