In only a few weeks, more than 102,000 people in the United States have died due to COVID-19, also known as coronavirus. It is a grim milestone made worse by White House indifference, disagreement over how to handle treatment, and state-mandated stay-at-home orders being eased under political pressure to open up a locked-down economy that's thrown millions out of work.
This rush to get back to what is considered normal got sidetracked on Memorial Day in a Minneapolis neighborhood. An African-American man named George Floyd was arrested by police for allegedly trying to pay for groceries with a counterfeit $20 bill. He was also unarmed. Instead of simply taking Floyd into custody, arresting officer Derek Chauvin (who is white) was seen on video taking a knee to the back of Floyd's neck. He was heard complaining that he couldn't breathe. After nine minutes of this, Floyd died. Chauvin and the three other officers with him were all fired. On May 29, Chauvin was arrested and charged with third degree murder and manslaughter.
Viruses may have changed the way we live, but not how African-Americans have been treated through the centuries by those who have felt threatened by their presence. In the past few weeks alone:
- Ahmoud Arbery was shot and killed as he was jogging through a Georgia neighborhood in February. It took until May to charge two white men with his murder.
- Christian Cooper, who was bird-watching in New York's Central Park, confronted a white woman named Amy Cooper about letting her dog run loose. She responded by calling 911 on him. She has since apologized, but not before losing her job and her dog due to the negative publicity surrounding this.
Meanwhile, back in Minneapolis, the death of Floyd sent shock waves throughout Minnesota and the world. This isn't the first time the Twin Cities have gotten up in arms about tragic incidents between unarmed citizens and cops who should have known better. Remember what happened to Jamar Clark, Philandro Castile and Justine Ruszczyk? And all the others who got similar treatment, but without the benefit of cameras rolling?
This time, in addition to the peaceful protests of Black Lives Matter and others, they were joined on the streets and highways of Minneapolis and St. Paul by those who saw an opportunity to plunder and destroy all they saw. Big box stores were looted. Neighborhood businesses, many of them minority-owned, were in flames. Dozens of other stores and public transportation suspended their operations. It all culminated with demonstrators setting fire to the Minneapolis police department's Third Precinct building, a symbol of cops who have gone rogue.
Contrast that to state capitals (Lansing, MI and St. Paul, MN come to mind) being overrun by flag-waving, gun-toting, overwhelmingly white (and maskless) individuals heeding President Donald Trump's call to "liberate" their states from stay-at-home restrictions. With police presence friendly and at a minimum, they demanded the right to get haircuts and having beers with friends inside their favorite watering hole.
Health experts tell us that the number of COVID-19 patients will likely spike because of all this protesting. Despite pleas from local officials to mask up and stay six feet apart, it's unlikely anyone cares about social distancing right now.
Of course, President Trump felt the need to weigh in on Twitter like he does on just about every other issue. Taking a break from threatening social media for checking up on him and accusing MSNBC talk show host Joe Scarborough of murder, he called the protestors "thugs" (which is now considered a racial slur) and implied that looters could be shot.
After a slow start, state and local leaders are starting to wake up to the situation and called for peace. Before the Chauvin arrest was announced, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called out the National Guard to patrol the streets, then apologized to CNN for having arrested an African-American reporter and his crew as they were on TV covering the disturbance.
The cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and surrounding areas have imposed curfews lasting from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and possibly beyond.
This is 2020. Everyone's lives are in danger because of a virus that has become more unpredictable and deadly as time goes along. There is another virus that has been going around for centuries, and that's racism. No matter how many strides African Americans and other nonwhite citizens have made, the dominant culture has continued to treat them like second-class citizens or worse. There are no vaccines for either of them. We have to do what we can with what we've got to survive.
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