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Shelby Steeles new documentary, What Killed Michael Brown?, ostensibly focuses on the tragic case of a black teenager killed by a white officer in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014. But what it tells us about cultural mythshow they develop and whygoes far beyond a single flashpoint.

A widespread inaccuracy about the Brown shooting is that he had his hands up and said Dont shoot just before he died. Its one of several myths that Steele, a Hoover Institution fellow at Stanford University and long-respected race scholar, calls poetic truth. People believe cultural myths, he says, not because they have examined evidence and found it credible but because they align with narratives theyve already bought into. They feel true. In Steeles illustration, the poetic truth is that systemic racism in the Ferguson Police Department created the environment that led to Browns death.

While President Barack Obamas attorney general, Eric Holder, found no evidence Officer Darren Wilson was motivated by race, he argued that because black people made up only 67 percent of Fergusons population but represented 85 percent of traffic stops, it was clear the police department was guilty of widespread bias. Fergusons mayor had another explanation: While the city may be two-thirds black, the racial makeup of the surrounding -communities is 90 to 95 percent black. People from all over this area come to Sams because there are no grocery stores, no Walmarts, nothing in North St. Louis City, and every one of those people come to Ferguson to shop, the mayor says. Statistically, who do you think is driving down those roads?

Steele says the danger in favoring poetic truth over objective truth (or, broad theories over specific details) is that it traps us into solving the wrong problems. For Christian viewers, its especially valuable how he lays out his thesis through two different churches.

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Gorrell is an advocate for the deaf, a former Republican Party election statistician, and a longtime congressional aide. He has been advocating against partisan gerrymandering for four decades.

I got a jolt of optimism in late September when someone alerted me to a four-minute video posted by the progressive news organization NowThis News.

There was former President Barack Obama, urging his fans to vote for state legislative candidates committed to doing the right thing when redrawing the nation's congressional and legislative lines next year. "Those maps will stand for 10 years," he reminded viewers. "That could mean a decade of fairly drawn districts where folks have an equal voice in their government, or it could mean a decade of unfair partisan gerrymandering."

Could this mean that, after all these years, that Obama had become a genuine anti-gerrymanderer? It was thrilling to think about, but soon enough I was reminded of all the other ways he's been more of an invisible gerrymanderer.

His personal relationship to the practice dates back two decades, to his days as an ambitious young Illinois legislator.

Having recently won his first re-election to the state Senate, Obama was in position to get what he wanted when the General Assembly redrew its own districts in 2001. And so he did. With the assistance of Democratic consultant John Corrigan, the contours of Obama's 13th District were shifted northward to assure that some of Chicago's wealthiest citizens would become part of his financial and political base.

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The Democratic coalition Obama wanted to build wealthier, whiter, less blue-collar and better-educated allowed him to sharpen the campaign message that helped him move from the Senate in Springfield to the Senate in Washington, and then onto the presidency.

At the same time, however, the forces of partisan gerrymandering were being used against him. Obama had been trounced in 2000 when he challenged Rep. Bobby Rush in the Democratic primary, but the congressman wanted to make sure his young rival did not set his eyes on a rematch. And so, with the help of venerable political mapmaker Kimball Brace, Rush persuaded his friends in Springfield to tinker ever so slightly with the boundaries of the 1st Congressional District so the lines ran one block to the north, two blocks to the west and one block to the south of Obama's residence.

"There is a conflict of interest built into the process," he told the weekly newspaper in his Hyde Park neighborhood that summer. "Incumbents drawing their own maps will inevitably try to advantage themselves."

It was a message he resurrected 15 years later, in his final State of the Union address. "We have to end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so that politicians can pick their voters, and not the other way around," Obama told Congress in January 2016. "Let a bipartisan group do it."

And yet, he spent none of his presidential political capital trying to advance the cause of bipartisan, let alone nonpartisan, mapmaking. He did not act when it mattered most in his first two years, when fellow Democrats controlled the House and Senate. At the time, it seemed their party would do well enough in the 2010 midterms to dominate redistricting for the decade now coming to an end.

It turned out the opposite way. A Republican wave that year (fueled in part by fundraising for something called the Redistricting Majority Project) resulted in all-GOP state governments getting to draw almost half the 435 congressional districts the next year while all-Democratic governments drew about 50.

Freed from his presidential duties, and the NowThis video notwithstanding, Obama has returned to his gerrymandering ways. With his former attorney general, Eric Holder, he's captaining the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.

While working to portray itself as out to combat partisan gerrymandering, the opposite is plainly true. Its website describes the NDRC as "the centralized hub for executing a comprehensive redistricting strategy that shifts the redistricting power, creating fair districts where Democrats can compete." Its IRS filings say the organization's purpose is to "build a comprehensive plan to favorably position Democrats for the redistricting process through 2022."

Obama's video does not mention his past support for redistricting commissions. He has not spoken out in favor of the one measure on the ballot next month, in Virginia, that would make nonpartisan citizens central players in the remapping for the next decade. He has not offered a kind word about the ad hoc citizen panel convened by Gov. Tony Evers, a fellow Democrat, to pressure the GOP majority in the Wisconsin Legislature.

Most recently notable, he did not mention redistricting reform as one of the cures for democracy's problems he rattled off Wednesday during a stemwinder at a drive-in pep rally Philadelphia, his debut as a Joe Biden campaign surrogate.

So don't be fooled by the video. Obama has evolved in the past 20 years, from the target of a partisan gerrymander into the invisible gerrymanderer.

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This afternoon, Barack Obama stopped by Philadelphia, the largest city in that crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, to urge people to elect his former vice president, Joe Biden, to the highest office in the land.

At the roundtable of community leaders, Anthony Phillips, the executive director of a youth civic engagement organization in Philadelphia, asked the president, Given our political and social atmosphere, why should young Black men care to be engaged in the political process?

Obama didnt mince words. What I consistently try to communicate during this year, particularly when Im talking to young brothers who may be cynical about what can happen, is to acknowledge to them that government and voting alone isnt gonna change anything, he said. Young people are sophisticated, so theres no point in overhyping what happens.

Obama admitted that his presidency had not solved all the nations issues. But he likes to think he left the country a little bit better. Criminal justice reform under Attorney General Eric Holder meant that many Black men convicted of nonviolent drug crimes faced more lenient sentences than they may have under previous administrations. The Affordable Care Act insured more than 20 million Americans, saving countless lives.

The answer for young people when I talk to them is not that voting makes everything perfect, he said. Its that it makes things better.

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Barack Obama Doesn't Think Voting Will Make the Country Perfect. He Wants You to Do It Anyway. - Mother Jones

Former NFL quarterback Michael Vick opened up about his road to redemption following his 21-month prison sentence in 2007 for his involvement in a dogfighting ring during a panel about empowering g the next generation of Black men at BLACK ENTERPRISEs4th annualBlack Men XCELsummit.

When I came home from prison, I felt the pressure. I felt like I was living in a bubble, admitted the FOX Sports analyst and activist at the virtual conference on Thursday about the notorious incident which overshadowed his football career.

However, rather than succumbing to the pressure he felt, Vick says he used the tools he developed behind bars to help him persevere.

I set goals while I was in prison. I accomplished almost everything that I wanted to accomplish and then some. That right there was the ultimate confirmation that I could do anything that I wanted to do in my life.

Vick added that now he uses the adversity hes overcome as a teachable moment for younger Black men and women.

I preach a hard message when talking to the youth in terms of responsibility, character, your beliefs, values, and morals, said the NFL legend. I try to explain to young men and women the hurt and the anguish that Ive experienced to grow stronger and to get to where I am today. I want my message to be, at all cost, youre not going to go through life perfect, there are going to be some ups and downs, but its all in how you persevere.

He went on to talk about leaning on faith, saying, let God lead you from there.

At another point, the former Atlanta Falcons player talked about the need to provide Black athletes with guidance, mentorship, and father figures.

Young athletes today straddle the fence in terms of what I should do [versus] what shouldnt I do. It can be very complicated. A lot of them come up from backgrounds where theyre not taught, not educated, and they dont have that guidance in order to prepare themselves for what theyre going to be facing, he said.

Were all put in high positions for a reason. Ive been thought a lot and I look back and I say I want to help the younger generation not make the mistakes that Ive made, he added.

Sponsored by FedEx Express, Black Men XCEL (BMX) was designed to provide Black men with the tools, resources, and training needed to advance in their respective careers and industries as well as acquire generational wealth and maintain mental wellness. The two-day summit featured a variety of sessions, workshops, coaching, and virtual activities. BMX also gave participants access to some of todays most successful business and executive influencers. Furthermore, the summit, which was also facilitated in partnership with presenting sponsors AT&T and JPMorgan Chase, provided attendees with the opportunity to conduct live chats with speakers, experts, mentors, and fellow attendees.

The motto for this years BMX is celebrating the best of who we are, said BLACK ENTERPRISE President and CEO Earl Butch Graves Jr. in his opening remarks. It is a celebration of Black mens collective achievement, resolve, and resilience during one of the most challenging periods of our history. We meet under the cloud of COVID-19 and a crippled economy. We are nearing the end of a divisive, racially charged election, and Black men are under assault at all levels.

Speakers included Walker Co. & Brands founder and CEO Tristan Walker, BCT Partners Chairman & CEO Randal Pinkett, AT&T Chief Development & Diversity Officer Corey Anthony, TV Host and Daddy Duty 365 Founder Shannon Lanier, former NFL Player Tiki Barber, PayPal Head of Global Financial Compliance Investigations Art Taylor, CNN contributor, attorney, and author Bakari Sellers, and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

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Exclusive: Michael Vick on Prison and Succeeding Through The Fire - Black Enterprise

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Its easy to reduce the stakes for any Election Day to the White House race. It feeds a billion-dollar campaign industry, draws the biggest headlines and turns even the most benign of venues, such as front lawns, into public squares for political signalling and thats during normal times without this years urgencies of pandemic, recession and racial reckoning.

But the vast majority of contests underway right now are at the state and local level. And thats actually where most Americans day-to-day interaction with government takes place. Want your towns bridge repaired? Thats probably your county engineer. Need your school district to better use learn-from-home technology? See your school board. Utility rates, transit schedules, senior-center hours? Probably more the purview of your local leaders than anything President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden will be yammering about tonight at their final debate. The person in the White House has the nuclear launch codes, but your zoning board determines if that deck you want to build next spring passes code.

State races are also pivotal to determining the future composition of Congress. Thats why the two major parties are spending tens of millions of dollars in key races there right now. In state legislature races, one Democratic super PAC this week announced it was doubling its investment to $12 million just to flip just the Texas statehouse. A swing of just nine seats in Texas 150-person chamber could put Democrats in control in a state that has been tantalizingly close for Democrats in every election in recent memory. More broadly, the Democrats main election arm for state legislatures has invested $50 million this cycle to help down-ballot lawmakers.

Their Republican counterparts arent publicly announcing their budgets, but in the third fiscal quarter alone, they raised an eye-popping $23 million for state legislative races and have no plans on keeping any of it as a nest-egg for 2022.Theres been at least $100 million in what we can see from national liberal groups on state legislative races, says David Abrams, the deputy executive director at the Republican State Leadership Committee, citing the organizations own tracking and publicly available information. While we have far out-paced our direct counterparts, were up against a huge galaxy of liberal groups that for the first time committed money down the ballot.

I can see you rolling your eyes at these massive sums of cash on what are largely seen as small-ball jobs. With a few exceptions, the pay for state legislators is lousy and the work is part-time. (New Mexicos lawmakers work for free, New Hampshires are paid $100 a year, Montana and Kansas pay about $90 per day the legislature is meeting.)

Their power, though, is far-reaching. In more than half of the states, the legislatures draw the U.S. House district lines. As I wrote last year, the battle for the battleground actually unfolds in statehouse races. Thats why big names like former Attorney General Eric Holder and former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are leading their respective parties efforts to have control over House districts borders by securing partisan power in the state legislatures. If you want to take a marker to the borders of your states congressional districts, first you have to convince voters to hand your party the Sharpie.

This is the Democrats first shot since 2000 to have redistricting and a White House race coincide, says Jessica Post, the president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. District borders are pegged to the Census, which counts how many people live where and typically forces officials to tinker with boundaries as some areas gain neighbors and others shed populations. The goal, in the ideal, is to have every district have an equal number of people so that every member of Congress has the same number of constituents. The next time well have time this opportunity is in 2040, Post tells me by phone. Across the aisle, Republicans also acknowledge the stakes. If the Republican Party wants any chance of winning a congressional majority in the next 10 years, we have to win in some of these races, Abrams tells me, also by phone.

Both campaign committees recognize that local state legislative races could end up literally determining who the House Speaker is in Washington after 2022. Because so many states let their local lawmakers draw the maps, partisans can orchestrate idiot-proof districts that can protect their allies. In recent years, that has worked in Republicans favor. Democrats took their eyes off the ball for state races in recent decades and, as a result, were relegated to impossible-to-win maps. In 2010, Democrats lost almost 700 state legislative seats and gave Republicans the power to draw lopsided maps that gave the GOP a disproportionate number of U.S. House seats in 2012, 2014 and 2016. Only a blue-wave election of 2018 gave Democrats the opportunity to break Republicans smartly drawn firewalls in House races.

Republicans still control 59 out of the 99 state legislative chambers in the country and can still scrawl partisan battle lines on maps next year. (Nebraskas unicameral legislature is the lone that lacks a state house and state senate. Its state capitol also is one of my favorites and worth a visit if ever you find yourself in Lincoln.) If Democrats can net 48 seats in this election of the 600 races theyre watching they can flip 10 chambers and take back some measure of power.

Still, the Republicans have for years had the upper hand when it comes to state legislative races. Its how they dominated most of the 2010s. The state legislative races are relatively cheap and feed the pipeline of future talent. Democrats are playing catch-up. But with Trump in the White House and Biden pulling ahead in polls, theres a reason why Democrats are feeling better than they have in years. Then again, its 2020, and who knows whats going to happen?

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Write to Philip Elliott at philip.elliott@time.com.

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The Presidential Race Dominates Headlines. Heres Why National Parties Are Dumping Tens of Millions Into State Races - TIME