For more than a decade, America’s racial grievance industry has enjoyed the extraordinary privilege of having its accusations travel at the speed of social media. Before the facts can emerge, activists assign racial motives, media personalities identify villains, and online agitators assemble the mob. Private citizens can suddenly find their photographs, families, workplaces, and telephone numbers dragged into a national morality play in which their guilt has already been decided.

The controversy surrounding the death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells may signal a turning point.