Police serve as an occupying force in poor communities of color because those communities exist — often created by red-lining — worsened by savage inequality of schools and health care and job opportunity.

The median income of African American families, at $41,000, is less than 60% of white families at $71,000, another gap that has grown worse since 2000.

African Americans are 60% less likely to have health care at work than whites.

African Americans are less likely to have adequate health insurance and more likely to have chronic illnesses.

There is only one major reason why this rich country does not have the universal health care, good public schools, secure retirements, decent housing, adequate food — and that is racial injustice and the collateral damage it does to people of all races who are not affluent.