Black Panthers, Captain America, police chiefs and lawmakers: Who can really change the world?

That perennial question surged to the fore in the past five years, with Black Lives Matter’s challenge to the culture of law enforcement, and the self-dubbed Resistance’s revolted response to Trump’s election. Pop culture has gotten in on the conundrum, too, most recently with a series of stories about Black men navigating their places within institutions that have violently kept them down — or, at best, accommodated them grudgingly.