Floyd's death: Straw that broke the camel's back amid pandemic pain

George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, died in Minneapolis on Monday while he was being restrained by the police. Video footage of the incident shows that, handcuffed and in the custody of four white police officers, he was pressed face down on the ground while one officer pushed a knee against his neck for about seven minutes.

As the attention of the country switched from the coronavirus to the death, that African Americans are disproportionately and unfairly targeted by the epidemic seemed to have been forgotten. Nearly one third of those who have died across the country are black, much higher than the national black population of 13 percent. Why? Inherent racism.

The protests happening now are not only a revolt against Floyd's death and racial discrimination more broadly, but also a response to a concentrated outbreak of other social and economic problems in the U.S. caused or exacerbated by the pandemic: High unemployment, declining living standards, and longstanding health and socio-economic disparities.

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