The death of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on May 20 night has sparked wide spread protest which are reported to turned into widespread looting, fires and destruction in Minneapolis and St. Paul. During the past days, these protests have spread as fire and fury across the US.

The CNN writes “several cities across the US erupted in war zone-like scenes as crowds defied curfews nearly a week since the death of George Floyd, who spent his last moments pinned under an officer’s knee, begging for his life.Outraged, hurt and shouting through masks worn to protect themselves from coronavirus, thousands poured onto streets in demonstrations. While some were peaceful, others ended in chaos and devastation.”

• It’s a big deal that the outrage expressed over George Floyd’s death was massive and multiracial
• `Death by racism’: Part of America’s DNA from the start?

Death by Racism

The Associated Press reporter Jerry Schwartz writes in `Death By Racism’: Part of America’s DNA from the start? “Many blacks are redlined into densely packed, crime-ridden urban areas. Stuck in underfinanced, substandard schools. Subjected to silent environmental catastrophes, like lead hidden in pipes and on walls.”

This is all true 401 years after the arrival of the first slaves on these shores, 155 years after they were emancipated, more than five decades after the passage of the voting rights acts. If whites are surprised it is only because they view the world through rose-colored, Caucasian glasses. I think white people were spared the truth of what was happening so they could believe there was progress being made.

Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Campaign Zero (source: Associated Press)

Talking to the AP reporter, Rev. William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, said “‘death by racism’ goes back to the founding of the country. It is ‘a wound’ that has caused untold suffering over the centuries. We only discuss it and deeply probe it at a moment like this.”

There comes a time in every generation when the wound becomes so infested that the body politic cannot stand it. I pray that this is one of those moments.

Rev. William J. Barber II, Talking to AP

‘None of this is new. The statistics on black mortality, the accounts of black killings at the hands of the police and others, have played out over generations, not weeks’, write the Associated Press.

Protest Cold Trigger Virus Spread

Minnesota health officials are worried that ‘protests over police brutality could exacerbate the spread of COVID-19 in Minnesota and trigger a surge in an outbreak that has had a disproportionate impact on minorities’. State Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm told to reporters that people are moved to want to speak and to want to gather in solidarity and in protest, and we certainly honor and respect that right.

As we know, large gatherings do pose a risk in any epidemic, but certainly where we stand today with the state of COVID-19 spread in our community. Knowing that we have community spread, we just want to again encourage folks who gather to be mindful of the risk.

Malcolm (source: Star Tribune)

“Staying 6 feet from others in public — and a 51-day stay-at-home order that ended May 18. That delayed the peak of the pandemic, which Minnesota has yet to reach despite the recent plateau in diagnosed cases”. “We believe we are still climbing the curve,” said Malcolm.

Minnesota Governor Walz told to reporters that said he expects a sharp increase in cases of Covid-19 in his state because of large groups of protestors out in close proximity.

I am deeply concerned about a super-spreader type of incident. We’re going to see a spike in Covid-19. It’s inevitable.

Gov Tim Walz (source: CNN)

Similarly other health experts and state leaders fear coronavirus could spread rapidly during mass protests in US, writes CNN.

Twin Cities Under Curfews

‘We’re sick of it’: Anger over police killings shatters US. A Brooklyn, New York protestor is quoted saying “The mistakes that are happening are not mistakes. They’re repeated violent terrorist offenses and people need to stop killing black people.”

Yesterday in Minneapolis, ‘police, state troopers and National Guard members moved in soon after an 8 p.m. curfew took effect to break up protests, firing tear gas and rubber bullets to clear streets outside a police precinct and elsewhere’ according to MPR News.

This note post is part of learning race & inequality in US series inspired by recent protests in US and around the world.

Source of cover image used in this note post is taken from the Medium’s article screenshot.