During the last few days, there is one quote I keep finding myself going back to, by Martin Luther King Jr.: "A riot is the language of the unheard".
Nobody likes riots. There has never been a single person who woke up and decided it was their fanciful whim that they riot. There has, obviously, never been a single person who woke up and hoped to be rioted against. Riots are dangerous (especially now when merely being outside around others is dangerous), they risk losing support for the underlying cause, and they require an immense investment of time and energy for even the smallest output. Nobody comes to rioting as anything other than their last resort. When rioting is called the language of the unheard, it means exactly that: A riot is the final attempt by people who have tried every other avenue to tell people they matter and were ignored.
If you don't want this riot, good. Neither do I. Neither do the people rioting. It would end tomorrow if society took the dignity of black people seriously. It would end tomorrow if society took the lives of black people seriously.
This riot is not only about one death. It is not even only about racially-based police brutality. It is about a country that has, since before it was even a country, systematically committed atrocities against black people. Every major city in America could be burned to the ground by these rioters and it would still pale before that which society has done to the black community even within the past century and would be practically invisible measured against the full list of offenses.
Compared to these crimes against humanity, the rioters' demands and methods are positively restrained. In response to all that was stolen from them, they ask only for the dignity to live. In response to all the murder, enslavement, oppression, and deliberate economic devastation perpetuated on them for centuries, they have responded with only moderate property damage over a few days time. You may not like that property damage is occurring. I imagine, however, the rioters like violent systemic racism even less. Why don't you?
Let's all work together to end these riots by pushing for those responsible to be brought to justice. Let's hold society accountable.