America’s crises are boiling over, one into another. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, masses of people are taking to the streets to protest police brutality after the death of George Floyd in Minnesota and other victims of racial violence.
These two stories are linked. They are both public health stories. The link is systemic racism.
“The same broad-sweeping structural racism that enables police brutality against black Americans is also responsible for higher mortality among black Americans with Covid-19,” Maimuna Majumder, a Harvard epidemiologist working on the Covid-19 response, tells Vox.
“One in every 1,000 black men and boys can expect to be killed by police in this country,” she says. “To me, this clearly illustrates why police brutality is a public health problem; anything that causes mortality at such a scale is a public health problem.”
As the Covid-19 crisis continues, it’s also become clear that black communities, and other communities of color, have suffered a disproportionate burden. Law professors Ruqaiijah Yearby and Seema Mohapatra recently explained this in detail in the Journal of Law and Bioscience:
African Americans make up just 12% of the population in […]
Yesterday, the Gov. of MINN announced a civil lawsuit/investigation of Minneapolis Police Dept, citing generations of embedded racism. It’s obvious that Minneapolis like many cities in America is deeply divided. The black Chief of Police gave a very moving apology to protestors. But I really applauded yesterday was Obama, who is emerging as someone
who’s intention is to be a force for healing. He reminded the public that police chiefs are elected officials and gave links to his foundation that provided ways to understand the necessary steps they can take for change. I was also deeply moved by seeing photo after photo of police taking a knee while surrounded by protestors. It feels as if a wound created by racism has been lanced in a very public way. Last night I read that voters are coming out in droves in cities like Philadelphia which has suffered from racist policies for decades. One of the most impressive voices during these past few days has been the Mayor of Atlanta, a woman. We face many challenges, but so many of them are under a spotlight in ways we’ve never seen.
My apologies. Chief of Police are appointed by local officials voted in to office, ie mayors, county officials. Voters = consequences!