US Surgeon General Jerome Adams says George Floyd 'could have been me' as he opens up about facing racism every day

• US Surgeon General Jerome Adams is acutely aware that what happened to George Floyd, the man killed by a Minneapolis police officer last month, could've easily happened to him.
• "That could be me pulled over for speeding 5 miles over the speed limit, that could be me with a busted tail light, that could be me who is just seen as a Black man, and not as the Surgeon General of the United States," Adams told Politico.

US Surgeon General Jerome Adams is just one year younger than George Floyd, the 46-year-old who was killed by police after an officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes on a Minneapolis street.

As a Black person in America, Adams is acutely aware that what happened to Floyd could've easily happened to himself.

"I look at him and I really do think 'that could have been me,'" Adams, who is a Trump appointee, told Politico's Pulse Check podcast.

"That could be me pulled over for speeding 5 miles over the speed limit, that could be me with a busted tail light, that could be me who is just seen as a Black man, and not as the Surgeon General of the United States, especially if I'm not wearing a uniform, but I'm casually dressed in my hoodie and tennis shoes."

There is hard data to back Adams up on this.

The odds of a Black man dying at the hands of police in the US are about 1 in 1,000, according to one 2019 study, which far surpasses the risks that other groups face of getting killed by police.

"That could be me on the side of a road with a knee in my neck," Adams said in the interview. "I have been pulled over in my life for very minimal offenses. I have been questioned in grocery stores, and in shopping centers by security guards for things that I did not do."

Adams said this racism is with him from the moment he wakes up in the morning, before he gets in the car.

"I'm thinking about what to wear, I'm thinking about being particularly cautious to the neighborhoods that I'm driving through," he said. "I'm thinking about other factors that people who aren't Black don't have to think about, but may impact just whether or not I can even make it to work."

As a doctor, he also considers how all this extra stress might have some effect on his own high blood pressure, and his elevated risk for developing diabetes, both conditions that are disproportionately prevalent in Black communities.

"I myself am on multiple medications for chronic diseases that I'm at higher risk for, having grown up poor and Black," Adams (who is also asthmatic) said.

The Maryland native and father of three said he hopes that both the coronavirus pandemic (which is disproportionately hospitalizing and killing Black people in the US), and the renewed focus on institutional racism in the country that the deaths of Floyd and others have sparked, will help the country to "focus on some of these issues in a meaningful way," creating better health — and longer lives — for future generations of Americans.

"You can have good intentions and still be a perpetrator of racist policies and institutional racism," Adams said. "So we need to make sure we sit down, we identify where these biases exist, we identify ways that we can alleviate and mitigate that bias, and that we work together moving forward to lift up health for all."

You can listen to Adams' entire interview with Politico here.