>>> I just can't get worked up over some broken windows and stolen beer (again, bay area) when people are being killed in the streets and nothing is being done.
That's a fallacious logic. From this logic it follows that as long as there are bad crimes, any lesser crimes are OK. Breaking windows and stealing beer is not helping to make the police (or anything else) better - if anything, it proves to the silent majority that the police is not harsh enough - evidently, as soon as it turns the other way, there's window breaking and beer stealing going on. So it only goes to prove that the police should put the boot down for those window breakers and beer stealers. To counter this argument, it should be shown that window breaking and beer stealing does not represent the normal behavior and is not what the protest is about. And to make that clear, yes, you should "get worked up" about it, otherwise people who don't know you would assume you do consider it to be OK, and make their conclusions. And you may not like them at all.
>>> but it's really hard to compare that to the situation with black, brown, and poor america.
First of all, most of the people hurt are black, brown and (relatively) poor America. The rioters don't go to riot in Beverley Hills and don't trash Larry Ellison's private island. They riot next door to where they live and trash and set on fire the local grocery store. Which is owned by their neighbor who is only marginally richer than they are, who worked his ass off his whole life to become that and who is now broke and needs to figure out how the hell he's going to pay his bills next month.
But second - what exactly that trashing and burning does to make the situation better (I don't consider couple of looters getting drunk for free a real improvement)? Exactly nothing except now they don't have a local grocery store (so also guys who worked there are out of work. Also not exactly billionaires they were, right?).
>> Maybe some rabble rousing will make something happen
Or maybe it would convince the other people that the problem is not that the police is too harsh but that it is not harsh enough. I've heard the questions about "why National Guard was not deployed immediately" all over the TV and radio as soon as the riots hit the streets. National Guard, as you know, is basically military. So people start asking why the government is not setting the military - with tanks, fighter jets and other power tools - on their citizens, because the police with mere handguns, shotguns and armored cars looks too weak for them. Is that what rabble rousing was supposed to achieve? If so, good job then. If not, well, not so good job.
>>> we've left an entire generation (or two, or three) of the black community behind and it pisses me off that we as society just don't seem to care.
The society cares a lot - just turn on the TV and listen to any politician, they talk day and night about it for the last 50 years. Has it helped? Not really, as it looks. Does trashing and burning help? Not likely. So maybe it's time to do something that does help instead. And for that, some though is required as to what would help, instead of just breaking windows and stealing beer. Stealing beer is easy, but would not solve the problem, unfortunately.