As suburban protesters rally against racial inequities, those largely white communities have been party to a systemic pattern of exclusion.

The past 10 days in America have been both horrifying and heartening as the killing of George Floyd has sparked outrage, protest and a violent response by authority. Amid the confrontation, we have seen and heard signs of a broader recognition of the devastating effect racial inequity has had on black Americans.

In Connecticut, the protests have been largely peaceful. The messages about what needs to change have been delivered with passion and pride. For the most part, police have acted with restraint, skipping the show-of-force displays we’ve seen elsewhere in the nation.

But there is also a glaring lack of awareness beneath the surface that demands attention as white protesters in Tolland, West Hartford, Simsbury and other suburban communities have turned out to march. For it is those same largely white communities that have been party to a systemic pattern of exclusion that has aggravated the problems giving power and passion to this moment.

Connecticut is a segregated state. The disparities in income, educational attainment, living conditions and opportunity between suburb and city are staggering. And, in Connecticut, the suburban/urban divide is largely a racial divide as well. This legacy of discrimination and inequality has been passed down in Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport from one generation of color to the next.

It is a legacy perpetuated by a Jim Crow-like web of funding formulas, laws and zoning regulations masquerading as Home Rule. Connecticut may have robust anti-discrimination laws, but that only makes the realities of our segregated world more difficult to see. It does not make the effects any less devastating.

Schools are one example. Drawing school districts along town lines perpetuates segregation and inequality. Wealthier towns with more restrictive zoning laws in Connecticut have students performing at higher levels, effectively making income level and average lot size the price of admission to better schools.

Zoning regulations are another critical issue. Local statutes governing minimum lot sizes, sewage systems and housing density are exclusionary tactics that effectively keep many of our towns rich and white. The effects of this de facto segregation ripple in a myriad directions, from schools to jobs to safety.

We see the effects in one institution after the next, from police departments to corporate boardrooms to the media. We would be remiss not to acknowledge our own failings here. As is the case at many newsrooms across the nation, The Hartford Courant is lacking in diversity. The richness and depth of the stories being told about issues of race and equality could and must be vastly improved.

There have been no shortage of efforts in Connecticut over the years to address this systemic inequality. The Sheff v. O’Neill education lawsuit led to the creation of a network of high-performing magnet schools in and around Hartford. But is also left thousands of children behind, wrestling with the same challenges that sparked the lawsuit. Affordable housing laws have attempted to address some of the restrictive zoning regulations but have proven more a nod to the problem than a real solution.

And that is often where we find ourselves, nodding at the problem rather than solving it.

Amid the outcries and protests of these last few days, there have been demands for meaningful change, and an agenda is starting to come into focus. The theme has been clear: We can do better, we must do better, we must do better now.

At a funeral procession honoring Floyd in Hartford on Wednesday, there were calls to shift spending away from law enforcement to address underlying issues like inadequate healthcare and substandard housing. Howard Hill, a community leader whose funeral home sponsored the funeral, said more focus is needed on supporting black-owned businesses. “Economics is what makes this country turn,” he said.

There are solutions. There are answers.

But it must start with an admission that some of the basic building blocks of what many in Connecticut hold dear — locally-controlled schools, a town-centric culture, neighborhoods with a country feel to them — are also the foundation of an insidious form of segregation that has left far too many behind.