Commentary: The rage caused by the slaughter of unarmed human beings at the hands of those who believe it is their God-given right to do so has reared its ugly head yet again. First, it was a young man gunned down for jogging while black. Then it was a young black woman shot eight times by police in her own home for living while black. Now, we have watched in horror as an unarmed black man in handcuffs, face down, and pleading for his life was murdered as a police officer literally squeezed the life out of him. His name was George Floyd.
It didn’t matter that George Floyd repeatedly told the officers, “I can’t breathe.” It didn’t matter that four police officers appointed themselves judge, jury and executioner. It didn’t matter that those police officers watched while the life drained from George Floyd’s body and none of them had the decency put a stop to it. It didn’t matter that George Floyd was a human being. These officers would have shown more compassion for an animal, likely opting to tranquilize the animal rather than kill it.
The cruelty of this particular brand of killing is eerily similar to what happened to Eric Garner in New York in 2017. He was killed by a banned chokehold. His death was also videotaped. The officers who choked Eric Garner to death were exonerated. The officer who killed George Floyd is facing third-degree murder and manslaughter charges. But, as long as the current U.S. Attorney General is “overseeing” the Justice Department and the courts are quietly being stacked with conservative judges, it will be difficult for anyone to obtain justice. This reality is breathtaking.
But, there’s more than one virus killing people of color in this country. Whether it is economic inequity, environmental inequity, criminal justice inequity, or health inequity, the virus of racism is just as lethal a virus as COVID-19. What is happening to the Navajo nation during this pandemic points to a deadly health crisis and genocide for people of color. The playing field is not level, and it is killing us.
Implicit biases in our institutions have taken a debilitating toll. Racial disparity lawsuits have cost billions of dollars. Undoubtedly, the city of Minneapolis will face a wrongful death lawsuit for the murder of George Floyd. Financial payouts for the privilege of perpetuating racism are expensive, absurd and unsustainable.
Lest we forget that the United States has the world’s largest prison population; predominantly people of color. Unprecedented numbers of nonviolent offenders are behind bars, yet we are certainly no more secure. Meanwhile, privatized prison hotspots are a potential death sentence for inmates whose only crime in some cases is that they are poor and their skin is brown or black.
These are not problems that can be fixed unless there are dramatic reforms to the norms that have led to implicit biases and systematic institutional racism. Such reforms will not happen under the current regime. A pandemic, an unprecedented death toll, 40 million unemployed Americans, an economic recession, mass murders, and race relations reminiscent of the days of Jim Crow; all of these catastrophes shine a spotlight on the importance of voting. The upcoming election is literally a matter of life and death. Marching and protesting will not fix this depravity. The self-inflicted disasters plaguing us can be mitigated if eligible voters will vote. If we vote as if our lives depend on it, then maybe we can all breathe again.