This month’s historic Supreme Court ruling that LGBTQ employees are protected in the workplace by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was another step forward in the march for equality. While there is much to celebrate, this ruling comes as our nation is suffering from centuries-old systemic racism and grieving its latest victims. George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were killed by police officers. Twenty-five-year-old Ahmaud Arbery was gunned down on a run by two white men. We need to say their names, know their stories, and recognize why they were deprived of a full life.

America is suffering under the crushing weight of three crises, which are a public health pandemic, an economic free fall, and structural racism. They are knotted together in that untangling one depends on how we untangle the others. For instance, structural racism is deeply ingrained in the share of black workers unemployed and dying from the coronavirus. Today, thousands of working people across the country will join together in a national day of action called the Workers First Caravan for Racial and Economic Justice.

"We are very disappointed that three judges did not deem the lives of America’s workers worthy of holding an argument or issuing a full opinion," AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said in a statement responding to the decision. "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s post-it length response to our petition acknowledges the 'unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic' but repeats the false claim by Big Business that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration already has done what is needed to protect workers," he added.