The More Things Change, the More they Stay the Same

                           The More Things Change, the More they Stay the Same

In the midst of the corona virus pandemic the United States is experiencing tremendous instability as all of our institutions are stressed in response to the crisis.Whether it is our system of healthcare delivery, K-12 and higher education, food production and distribution, or immigration, observers have been saying the way all of these things are handled is likely to look very different on the other side of corona than they looked before.

Predictably, the racial divide in the country has also been on display across these months. Whether its the disproportionate death of Black and Brown people at the hands of the virus, the demand that "essential workers" (disproportionately POC) in places like nursing homes, agriculture, or meatpacking plants go back to work, protective gear or not; or, the spectacle of almost all white protesters, sometimes armed, demonstrating at state capitols demanding that social isolation mandates be lifted so they could get back to work, we see the racial divide playing out.

A lot of things are undergoing rapid change in response to corona, but our racial cleavages are not changing. They're simply being more deeply exposed. And in these last couple of weeks we've now had news of the white vigilante killing of Ahmad Arbery in Georgia, and white police killings of Breonna Taylor in Louisville and George Floyd in Minneapolis. In Georgia the prosecutors were sitting on Arbery's case, until the video of it was leaked. Then the state bureau of investigation took it over and indicted the perpetrators. Taylor's case is now under FBI investigation. And as I write, the cop who was on video pinning his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck has been arrested, a full four days after his execution was captured on video and put out.

The initial news of investigations and indictments are good things. But we know that as cases like Eric Garner, Freddie Gray and Philando Castile made their way through the system the perpetrating officers were not convicted of murder. So we sit on the edge of our seats as we await the verdicts in this latest round of white vigilante and police homicides.

So corona is changing our thinking about a lot of things in this country these days, but can we change the callous way that our criminal (in)justice system treats Black bodies? That's what I want to know.