“This is why we riot” captions an image of a white male murderer being fed water, while George Floyd was on camera beginning for water, pleaded with officers that he is claustrophobic and he can’t breathe. Riots erupted all across the world over this matter, in America, Canada and even in Europe, protestors were seen wielding boards that read “Black Lives Matter”. This was a post on Facebook, from a connection that I don’t even remember why I had added, probably because we knew a lot of similar people that I haven’t blocked, so I suppose I would also get along with him. Yet after I disagreed on his comment, and told him that I would hit the unfriend button since the post asked me to, I was already too late.

There are people being killed, mindless riots happening, protestors being disabled, shot with tear gas canisters to the face by police. People are left with lifelong injuries, it’s unreal. There was a college student who had lost his eye! To me this was alarming enough to not want to pursue journalism, this is outrageous! There were stories of reporters and media personnel being bombarded with tear gas or pepper sprayed, they even wore identifying clothing, what has our world come to? Then I read stories that this has been happening all over, like the middle east It’s the police that are the ones who are out of hand, not trained well enough to deal with these situations, or perhaps, not even trained at all.

There have been outcries to defund the police, cut their budget, even have them disbanded, as was the case in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This year as really been a tumultuous year, starting off with COVID-19, exposing weaknesses within borders. Canada, along with the US, had a lot of deficiencies in the ways we took care of our elderly. Hundreds of our parents and grandparents succumbed to wretched living conditions, not being properly cared for, food being served that was rotten and unsanitary health practises.

It was hard to read the news, to be told there were people dying in the hundreds, thousands. As the year progressed, the deaths began to dwindle away, supporting the idea that this thing might go away in Canada, that it may be manageable. Just as I think that this may be under control, I hear of the amount of people dying still, daily, in America. I’m actually subscribed to more American Newspapers than Canadian, with The New York Times, The Seattle Times and The Washington Post. This is also why I am hearing about the BLM protests over and over, and I am also hearing about the deaths of protestors, the deaths of blacks. Jacob Blake and Kyle Rittenhouse have filled the news as of late. The media covers it as racism, yet I see key differences in each video that aren’t race related, it’s how the person reacts to law enforcement, clearly Jacob Blake disobeyed the officers, walking away from the police. Kyle Rittenhouse on the other hand walked towards the police with his hands up. There are definitely other elements than race at play here.

Saying that racism is the cause for all the violence against blacks paints a very superficial, yet protective coat over blacks and their wrongdoings. First of all, that’s like saying that blacks are all innocent, which they are not. Now, I am not saying they are all guilty and we should treat them as criminals either; however, I want to pose the question “Do Blacks lean on their past, like the racial injustice, as a crutch to excuse bad behaviour?”. Do I think that this is the majority, not at all, but I think that a lot of youth lean on “I’m a victim of racism” as a get out of jail free card. I see all these videos of violence on whites, saying “white lives don’t matter”, watch below.

Reading some Youtube commentary on the Jacob Blake and Kyle Rittenhouse videos, it would seem that most people areon the same page, and have had enough of the overuse of the race card, even if he didnt have a knife. Although I agree that the cops shouldn’t have shot him 7 times,  but how hard is it to just listen to the police, especcially when they have guns pointed at you?

That does seem like a needless risk to take.