COMMENTARY

any time, for something as small as yelling.” It sends a message to the Black community that their lives are expendable.

But this video isn’t the first one like it, and it sadly won’t be the last. Racist violence is something Black and Brown people live with every day in this country. The police, who are supposed to protect citizens—all citizens— kill Black people at higher rates than white people in this country.

According to a 2020 Harvard study, Black people are three times more likely to be killed by police than white people. The study found that in Chicago and its suburbs, the disparity was higher: Black people in Chicagoland are more than 6.5 times as likely to be killed in a police encounter than white people.