Kenneth Frazier, CEO of pharmaceutical company Merck.
Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images
Merck CEO Ken Frazier said Monday that George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died at the hands of Minneapolis police, could have been him.
“What the African American community sees in that video tape is that this African American man, who could be me or any other African American man, is being treated as less than human,” Frazier said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Protests have erupted across the United States in recent days over the death of Floyd. Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer who was filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck before he died, was taken into custody on Friday and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in his death.
Frazier said that leaders in the business community can be a “unifying force.”
“Trying to solve these problems through the political system is very tough,” Frazier said.