Sometimes there are interesting historical comparisons that can be made. Not so much in that sometimes more or less the same thign happens twice, but that the same sort of event can have utterly different responses.
For example, look at how Wikipedia covers the death of George Floyd:
But an incident that was remarkably similar – a man was held down by cops until he died – is described thusly:
One of these guys was “murdered,” the other was “killed.” One resulted in riots and arson and book burning and statues being pulled down and history being memory holed not just in the US, but in the UK… the other has been effectively ignored. One of these resulted in millions of dollars in ransom payments from the city and the criminal charging of the cops involved; the other resulted in no charges, no payments.
One of these was black, the other white.
It should also be noted that the Wikipedia writeup about Timpa was reproduced in its totality above, only the references didn’t fit. That small bit of text is all there is to say on the subject. The Floyd Wikipedia page is something like 20 times longer.
The fact that Certain Groups can be killed by the police and it’s not big deal, while Other Groups being killed by the police in identical manners results in society being torn down tells you everything you need to know about who actually has privilege and power and where the *real* systemic racism lies.