Many African Americans watching protests calling for easing restrictions meant to slow the spread of the new coronavirus in US see them as one more example of how their health, their safety and their rights just don’t seem to matter.

To many, it seems that the people protesting — who have been predominantly white — are agitating for reopening because they won’t be the ones to suffer the consequences.

So far, the facts are proving them right: The consequences of keeping some businesses open have been falling disproportionately on the shoulders of black people and other marginalised groups.

“There has always been a small, white ruling class that has been okay with seeing certain populations as disposable,” said LaTosha Brown, founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, a power-building organisation based in the US South.

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