Over the last few days I’ve been following the protests and riots in America quite closely. For those not following the news, an unarmed black man named George Floyd was slowly suffocated to death by a group of police officers in front of a crowd of people. This quickly sparked large protests and riots in many major American cities. Here’s an article which sums up the events, and also links to some organizations you can donate to if you wish to help.
Remember that the mainstream media will dramaticise things, and that they protect the establishment. Whether it’s Fox News or CNN, they’ll show you burning buildings, but not peaceful protests where nothing violent is happening. They won’t show the police antagonizing peaceful protestors and driving their cars into them.
Any sensible country would know that the police should be trained to de-escalate situations like these, and yet, in America they seem to be trained to do the opposite.
The situation is complicated, and you shouldn’t trust anyone who’s trying to give a you a really simple and satisfying answer! There’s a lot of factors that contribute to so many people getting so mad. I hope you can relate to at least a few of the issues listed in this image:
Sure, there are a lot of people rioting, but don’t let that overshadow the 10s of thousands of protestors that aren’t, and the millions who are at home but are sympathetic to the protestors. Ask yourself why people are sympathetic.
Ask yourself why the minimum wage hasn’t increased in over a decade? Why America has the highest prison population per capita in the entire world? Why it’s the only developed country that doesn’t have universal healthcare? Why the justice system is so much fairer to wealthy individuals? Why neither republicans or democrats try to fix any of these issues, while they give trillions to corporations?
Personally, I think working-class Americans are right to be pissed off at their corrupt and racist leaders and institutions, and following the money can give you some idea of who they’re really working for.
