Racism is killing black people. It’s sickening them, too.

“I can’t breathe.”

That was the one of the final pleas uttered by George Floyd last week before he was killed by police officers kneeling on his neck and back — the same plea cried out by Eric Garner before he died six years ago in a police chokehold. These words have become a rallying cry for protests across the nation.

To those of us in the public health community, they are also a visceral reminder of a reality we have come to know all too well: Racism is a...