Gotcha didn't I? Talking about the looting and riots are what all news channels talk about nowadays. But many still fail to realize why it is happening.

George Floyd's death, the one that shocked the world and woke the entire world up. It is disappointing to see that it took a man dying on camera for people to finally realize the atrocities of police brutality that was always there. But alas, if we've started, we started. However, there has been a new debate about the protests themselves which are about the dangerous looting and violence happening in these protests.

First of all, try to understand the rage Black people have at this moment and all the time. Black people have always been killed, hunted down and STILL don't get justice. It always takes much longer for police officers who wrongly murdered people to be held accountable or even get fired from their jobs.

Sociologists Russell Dynes and E.L. Quarantelli explains that "the looting taking place in this situation is usually interpreted as evidence of human depravity." They wrote this in their study of 1968, another year in which racial tensions were high and protests resulted in widespread damage to property and death.

Of course, that doesn't account to the destruction to the small businesses, livelihoods and community centers, some that were even Black owned and other people of colour (even a Native American youth center!) We must distinguish the reckless looting and riots from the actual peaceful protests. People who are actually there to protest and enact change, are not the same people who are burning a building "for fun". People loot for the loot. Unfortunately, some protesters are not affiliated with the protesters' true cause, but using the moment to cause chaos and destruction undermines the efforts of those in peaceful protests.

Furthermore, journalists have strictly been following on the looting and riots more closely, as that gets more views and spectacle. That unfortunately leads to the misconception that the violence is everywhere and is extreme, when in reality even police agree that only a small number of the protesters engage in looting. Always try to look at situations on the other side and try not to make conclusions super quick!

Here is a great Youtube video by comedian Trevor Noah talking about this exact issue: