The death of George Floyd has sparked days of civil unrest in the United States. Those sparks have landed in a tinderbox built over decades of economic inequality — now exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Before the pandemic struck, African Americans were enjoying a strong job market. The black unemployment rate in February was 5.8% — near a 50-year low, though still higher than the white rate. Since then, unemployment for all racial groups has soared to double-digits. But the black-white gap has not noticeably worsened.African Americans who are working, however, are more likely to hold jobs that put them at risk of infection.
Higher risk of on-the-job exposure to the coronavirus is compounded by African Americans' higher rates of diabetes, heart disease and other conditions that are thought to contribute to"There have been epidemics in the black community that have existed for generations before COVID," Perry said."COVID accentuated and exposed those epidemics."
Just as the pandemic puts unequal health outcomes under a microscope, the video of George Floyd's last moments illuminates the frustration brought about by generations of economic hardship."That action really symbolized the knee on the neck of black homeowners and renters," Perry said."It represents the employers who don't provide the kind of benefits and wages that will lift African American communities.
He suggested the demonstrations taking place across the country, five months before a national election, provide an opportunity for candidates to spell out how they would deal with these challenges. "If we don't address the structural inequality," Perry said,"we'll be right back in the same place when the next inevitable crisis hits."
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