I have often disagreed with the notion that racism is a permanent fixture in American society. I believe too strongly in humanity’s ability to change, to adapt, to dream. I believed that our country could someday become a semblance of the utopia it often claims to be. Then I learned that 18-year-old Payton Gendron had walked into a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, and killed 10 people — eight of them Black — while wounding three others. I learned that Gendron had meticulously planned his actions after being indoctrinated by online racist conspiracy theories. I learned that there will always…