The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid

by Lawrence Wright

In Minnesota, African Americans make up only 6 percent of the population but 19 percent of confirmed cases of Covid-19; 5 percent of the population was Hispanic, but they made up 17 percent of the cases. Added to the list of comorbidities leading to racial disparities in health outcomes was the frustration of minority citizens with constant reforms that never led to meaningful improvements in their lives. Incrementally, there was progress. Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison took over the George Floyd case. Ellison was the first Black person elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota; when he was elected attorney general, he became the first Black person elected to statewide office in Minnesota, and the first Muslim elected to statewide office anywhere in America. Derek Chauvin became the first white officer in Minnesota to be charged with the death of a Black civilian.