How Economic Inequality Incited #BLM Protests
“Justice for George Floyd”
Cried out by demonstrators nationwide, this slogan makes no attempt to conceal the grievances behind the recent wave of protests and riots. Beginning on May 28 in Minneapolis after police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd, a 46 year-old African American man, protests spread across the country, sometimes turning violent. The outcry has been noted as exceptional for its ubiquity, intensity, and for instances of looting and violence. Never before has the issue of police brutality so wholly dominated news cycles, social media, and political discourse. Floyd’s murder, however, is heartbreaking for its ordinariness. Rates of fatal police brutality against African Americans have remained relatively constant over the past six years, with hundreds of reported deaths annually.
So, why is the outcry so much stronger now than in previous years?
Decades of rising economic inequality, highlighted by the unequal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, have created the “perfect storm” for civil unrest. Thanks to the progressive platforms of politicians like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, modern economic inequality has become a topical issue on the American political stage. Indeed, increasing national wealth has been distributed largely to the top quintile of incomes. Further, these gains have not been evenly distributed across racial groups. Incomes of African Americans have lagged behind those of White Americans, with an average $211 difference in weekly earnings between the two groups.
In a “post-racial” America, this continuing disparity is bound to spark resentment.
After the nationwide race riots of 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to study why the rioting occurred and how potential unrest could be averted in the future. The Commission cited “frustrated hopes” as a substantial factor; African-Americans continued to experience discrimination and segregation, despite legislative triumphs during the Civil Rights Movements. Likewise, continuing discrimination and economic inequality today has rendered widespread dissent all but inevitable.
Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this dissent.
Although the economic consequences of COVID-19 affect all populations, minorities experience the brunt of the impact. Pandemic-induced layoffs disproportionately impact African Americans, due to their overrepresentation in service professions, which cannot be performed remotely. These professions also carry the highest risk of coronavirus transmission. African Americans also tend to receive a lower quality of healthcare, even before COVID-19. Experts point to this disparity as one factor behind the especially high COVID-19 infection and fatality rates in African American populations.
In Illinois, African Americans make up 23% of coronavirus cases and 30% of fatalities, yet only 16% of the overall population.
In brief, the tragic police killing of Michael Floyd is the proximate cause of national outcry from the African American community. The potency of this outcry would be impossible, however, without the backdrop of declining economic opportunity. Previously masked by a long-standing bull market, race-based economic inequalities have been revealed by the current, pandemic-induced recession. Any federal action against the recession must take these inequalities into account. Otherwise, African Americans will be forced to endure yet another disproportionate burden.
