Former President John Mahama has condemned the killing of George Floyd, an African-American man in Minneapolis, US.

Floyd died after a white police man kneeled on his neck for than eight minutes. According to local police, he was being arrested for allegedly using fake $20 note.

Riots have since spread across the US with protesters demanding justice for the deceased.

Reacting to the development, Mr. Mahama, in an emphatic statement said “the issue at hand is not ‘respectability’, it is racism.”

“The killing of George Floyd is the latest in a centuries-long series of moral outrages that are now more visible because they are being documented on film and through social media,” Mahama wrote on Facebook Monday.

“I condemn these injustices, in all their many forms.

“Moments such as this call for solidarity. The systemic prejudices and injustices faced by Black people in America is based on racism - it makes no distinction on the basis of migration history, national origin, social class or educational attainment. They are concerned, solely, with the color of your skin,” he added.

Expanding the issue further, Mahama called for an end to violence against civilians in Ghana as well.

“We must understand that the threats and dangers are as real for Ghanaians and other Africans in America as they are for African Americans. We cannot look away, and we cannot be silent.

“This new awakening also applies to unwarranted use of violence against civilians here at home (Ghana); and to our own prejudicial treatment of some Ghanaians and the socially disadvantaged,” he wrote.