, Columnist
Racism Is America’s Pre-Existing Condition
Will thousands of needless deaths inspire action to address it?
No accident.
Photographer: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The protesters occupying America’s streets are rightly outraged over the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many others, and the chronic brutality those deaths exemplify. But their anger also reflects another malaise: the disparate impact of the coronavirus crisis on the country’s Black population.
As the pandemic spreads, it is killing and impoverishing Black people at outsized rates. This is partly because generations of discrimination have left them disproportionately vulnerable and facing a terrible choice: Put their lives on the line by going to work, or lose their livelihoods.