It’s happening again. We are witnessing yet another glaring discrepancy in law enforcement and mainstream media’s treatment of protestors based on race. Black people protesting peacefully for equality and justice versus white people angrily whining about not winning a fair election and BREAKING into the capitol. While this example is the most extreme yet, it is still a testament to the two realities black and white Americans operate in. We saw the same thing earlier last year when white people angrily rallied about having to wear masks, armed and stomping around on their respective city hall’s steps. Police stood lackadaisically while white people screamed in their faces. Those white protestors were called dissenters and angry folks. Then we witnessed Black Lives Matter protestors peacefully walking the streets viciously met with pepper spray, rubber bullets, and batons. These black protestors were deemed rioters and destructive instigators. It’s sickening.

I’m not sure what to even say considering I’ve feverishly written about my frustrations with the way American society sees black people. This decision, though sadly not surprising, has left me in a state of utter hopelessness for the justice system. Though, the justice system has never really offered any sense of solace. It is the justice system that has many times been the justification for mistreatment and condoned racist behavior. It’s hard to think of myself as being an individual or citizen of the world, when events like this turn my world upside down. It’s hard to not feel like an afterthought. On top of that is the feeling of being disenfranchised and irrationally criminalized just because my skin is darker. It’s one of those things that if you truly think about it your head will explode.

With 200+ years of inequality, mental and physical torture, prejudice, and let’s not forget the inescapable pain of racism, black citizens are still fighting for humanity. All the while living in a country, as W.E.B. Dubois so candidly put it, whose systems were not built to protect us. He said this about 100 or so years ago, and it still holds true today.

Except today more people are outraged. Today there are more people who are tired of holding their tongues and following the sordid status quo. Today people are ready for change, fighting for change. Today people are tired of these unforgivable, senseless systems that do more harm than good. Today there is a consensus that America cannot continue on this destructive path of apathy and ignorance. Though it’s hard to hold on to and it seems to be a constant ebb and flow more than a constant feeling, I still have hope for humanity. I still have hope that change will come. Big change. Meaningful change. It has to. It has to or I honestly don’t know how we could progress as a society on all sorts of levels.

Riot on the Capitol: Two Americas

Indecision