IT might have been mere coincidence, even if cataclysmic, that in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic the murder of American Mr George Floyd has triggered another life-changing event — the global protests against racial discrimination and injustice.

Overnight, the COVID-19 epidemic changed the world, certainly in terms of its economy and health care infrastructure. Hopefully, the racial protests will engender equally lasting changes in the way justice is meted out to people of all races.

As the world reconstitutes itself from the ravages of the epidemic, it must take advantage of this rare opportunity to re-imagine and redesign the social and economic construct so that social relations are based, not on race, but on the concept of equal opportunity for all.

In this, the United States is best suited to take the lead, as it is there that the vestiges of 400 years of slavery and black suppression continue to flourish at its worst and remain an obstacle to the creation of the desired goal of a “more perfect union”. The rest of the world will most likely follow the US.

The poverty rate among African Americans — 20.4 per cent of the population, or second only to the Native Americans (25.4 per cent), according to 2018 US Census Bureau data — is directly related to the injustices of slavery.

Enslaved people in the antebellum (pre-war) South constituted about one-third of the southern population. Slave owners sought to make their enslaved completely dependent on them through a system of restrictions, according to the prestigious History channel.

They were usually prohibited from learning to read and write, and their movement was restricted. Many masters took sexual liberties with enslaved women, and rewarded obedience with favours, while rebellious slaves were brutally punished.

A strict hierarchy among the enslaved, from privileged house workers and skilled artisans down to lowly field hands, helped keep them divided and less likely to organise against their masters.

Marriages between enslaved men and women had no legal basis, but many did marry and raise large families. Most slave owners encouraged this practice, but nonetheless did not usually hesitate to divide families by sale or removal to pay off debt.

After the abolition of slavery, little changed in their social and economic conditions. And even now, after their long struggles for the vote, there continues to be widespread attempts to suppress the exercise of their franchise.

If the change being demanded by the Black Lives Matter movement, obviously supported by millions of whites across the world, is to come, a determined assault must be made on poverty among African Americans and all others who suffer injustice because of their race.

Certainly, a change in policing is necessary but this must be preceded by reducing the need for hard policing by reallocating resources to investment in education, health, housing and job creation in black and minority communities.

We here in Jamaica have some issues analogous to those that black people face all over the world in respect of human rights abuses and improving policing. We, too, must remove the symbols of colonialism and slavery.

Thankfully, we have a chance to do it in a peaceful and orderly manner.