Anita Bender, Moorhead, Minn.

Amy Phillips, Daniel Rice, Fargo

The public execution of George Floyd on May 25 at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers and President Trump’s violent dispersal in DC on June 2 of people peacefully protesting Mr. Floyd’s murder are clear and horrific reflections of the disease of white supremacy that is embedded in the soul and structures of American society. Mr. Floyd’s death is one more example of the oppression that people of color have been subjected to by a law enforcement system that exists to maintain and extend the interests and bigotry of white citizens.

President Trump’s cowardly muscle-flexing and fake religious photo op at St. John’s Episcopal Church is one more example of white power being exercised, not for the purpose of national healing and racial justice, but for political pandering and reality TV optics.

Those of us who are white, who are responsible for spreading the disease of white privilege and supremacy, are obligated to use our voices and actions to eradicate this disease from our communities, the nation, and the world. We must demand that law enforcement, and other social systems, be purged of racist cultures and practices, we must listen to and take leadership from people of color, we must recognize and dismantle white privilege in our places of work and worship, we must confront the bigoted attitudes and behaviors of our friends, families, and ourselves, and we must vote for public officials who stand for justice and embody moral leadership. Ultimately, we must act out of the knowledge that extinguishing the pandemic of white supremacy, just like extinguishing the Covid-19 pandemic, requires admission of the facts and commitment to a long-term collective effort that guarantees the well-being of others as well as our own.