Eric Garner died on July 17, 2014, after police officers apprehended him on suspicion of selling cigarettes without tax stamps. After Garner stated that he wasn’t selling cigarettes, police officers went on to arrest him with brutal force. The result? Eric Garner was put in a chokehold for nearly 20 seconds, despite him repeatedly saying, “I can’t breathe.” In fact, he said it 11 times.

Garner then lost consciousness as the officers in question waited seven minutes for an ambulance to arrive. When the EMTs arrived, they neglected to perform CPR on Garner on the basis that he was believed to still be breathing. At the hospital, Eric Garner died just one hour later.

Eric Garner was undoubtedly a victim of police brutality, even though the officer in question — Daniel Pantaleo — failed to be indicted. The whole debacle served as a glaring example of systemic racism. A black man was apprehended, subsequently put in a chokehold — despite it being illegal for NYPD officers to do so, pleaded for his life, was left to die due to further negligence, and then failed to have his death avenged through the social justice system. It was and is a horrible tragedy, and it galvanized socially aware Americans to get involved through protests and activism. Black Lives Matter became not only a slogan but a movement of its own; and at the helm of it was Eric Garner’s daughter, Erica.

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Erica Garner died on December 30, 2017. Just a week prior, Erica suffered from an asthma attack that caused a major heart attack. She was then placed in a medically induced coma, and days later she passed away.

Erica was just 27, and it is yet another grave injustice that a person of color lost their life because of systemic racism.

For those who are unaware of the legitimate and grave ways in which systemic racism could directly influence someone’s death, let me elaborate. Systemic racism is more than racial biases or offhanded remarks. Instead, systemic racism is the result of policies, practices, and structures — both tangible and intangible — that affect the economic, political, physiological, and psychological wellbeing of people of color.

Erica Garner’s death was absolutely the result of systemic racism, much of which could have been avoided if there was a more equitable foundation for the world in which we live.

In many ways, Erica Garner’s death does not make sense — at least, statistically speaking. But systemically, her death makes all the sense in the world.

According to research from Harvard Health Publishing, the average age for a first heart attack in men is 65. This statistic is presented because men are overwhelmingly more likely to have heart attacks than women. Combine that with the fact that under the age of 45, heart attacks only occur between 4% and 10% of the time, it seems like a mystery. If heart attacks are more likely in men, and men under 45 are significantly less likely to have a heart attack, and Erica Garner was not only a woman but also the tender age of 27, how could she have suffered such an enigmatic fate?

Some of the leading causes of premature heart disease are nutrition, physical inactivity, and stress. All of these risk factors are overwhelmingly more present in populations of color.

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, “healthier diet patterns — for example, diets rich in fruits, vegetables, fish, and nuts — cost significantly more than unhealthy diets (for example, those rich in processed foods, meats, and refined grains). On average, a day’s worth of the most healthy diet patterns cost about $1.50 more per day than the least healthy ones.”

For an average family of four, this difference accounts to over $2,000 yearly. If we take in account the median income for a black family of $43,300 — much less than the $71,300 for their white counterparts — that “measly” $2,000 ends up being nearly 5% of a family’s income. For white families, on the other hand, that accounts to just 2.8% of a family’s annual income. Year over year, that adds up to a significant disparity in food expenditures, especially when you factor that the median total wealth for a college-educated white household is $301,300 versus a black college-educacted families’ median wealth coming in at $26,300.

This discrepancy is, once again, based on systemic racism which dates back to when blacks were only considered three-fifths of a person compared to whites. Blacks could not acquire land, jobs, or education at an equal rate to whites, and opportunity and access still pales in comparison to white opportunity to this day. Total wealth factors in things such as property — which could be inherited from family and is another situation far more likely for white families than black ones — and cars, savings, and other stores of value. After centuries of oppression, black people still have not caught up. So what seems like an “insignificant” price to pay for something as important as healthy food ends up being an entirely more significant expense for black families as opposed to white families.

This factor directly connects to another high risk factor for heart attacks: physical inactivity. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 50% of black people work more than one job to meet regular household expenses or to pay off debts. Yes, over 50% of black people have to work multiple jobs just to pay for their everyday expenses. (So remember that added cost to eat healthy food? Yep, that’s a lot harder when you already are struggling to keep your head above water.) That statistic is higher than any other race; in fact, black people are the only race where over 50% of their population are working multiple jobs.

It is inherently more difficult to fit in time to exercise when you’re working two (or more) jobs. Most of your waking hours are spent working, and when you add in time with family and friends, you have virtually no time to clock in hours at the gym or go on leisurely walks throughout your neighborhood to win weekly Fitbit competitions. Alas, basic health objectives become a rare luxury for black people, and that alone is a crying shame. And that’s without even delving into the unequal access to healthcare for black people as compared to white people.

Once again, these risk factors continue to connect the dots on why Erica Garner’s fate is so clearly linked to systemic racism. Stress is also a huge precipitator of not only heart disease, but of many diseases in general. Erica watched her father die at the hands of reckless police officers who didn’t respect the santicty of her dad’s life. She then spent years advocating not only for her father’s life but the lives of so many other black men and women who suffer at the hands not only of police brutality but also systemic racism as a whole. The gravity of these circumstances should not be lost on anyone; the immense stress of a loved one being murdered in cold blood by someone who pledged to protect and serve is no light matter. The gravity of galvanizing millions of supports to declare that Black Lives Matter — and work to change the status quo — is no light matter either.

Erica Garner is a name we will remember, just like her father, Eric. In a piece penned for The Washington Post last year, Erica Garner said this:

“Even with my own heartbreak, when I demand justice, it’s never just for Eric Garner…It’s for my daughter; it’s for the next generation of African-Americans.”

And as our hearts break for Erica and her family — who have to watch another loved one die too soon — let us not forget that Black Lives Matter is not just a movement to prevent and end police brutality. It’s a movement to make the lives of black people better; it’s a movement to make America better; and it’s the hope and motivation that one day “liberty and justice for all” won’t just be a tagline — it’ll be the foundation and freedom that has long evaded black lives everywhere.