New York City mayor Bill de Blasio this morning in a radio interview with HOT97 suggested that the Eric Garner case is part of a larger pattern of racism in America.

“I see it through the eyes of my family and my own son,” he said, referring to the fact that his son, Dante, is biracial.

One of the hosts, Peter Rosenberg, returned to that point later in the interview. “You’ve talked about your son quite a bit, and you are raising a black man in America, which we know is a challenge and a scary situation these days,” he said to the mayor. “What did you say to your son directly about the results of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and now Eric Garner?”

“It’s a conversation that’s really much less about any one case,” de Blasio said. “It’s something much bigger. . . . It’s kind of tragic that we are not surprised when one of these tragedies occurs, you know. And by the way, even beyond the question of racism in America — and I’ve said very very clearly in these last days, let’s be clear about, this is not based on decades of racism, this is based on centuries of racism — we’ve become somehow used to the notion that these tragedies will occur.”

His son “didn’t need me to tell him what might happen here,” de Blasio added.