It is despicable to value corporations over lives, yet this ideology is ingrained into American society.
There has been an uproar on social media recently, not only about the unjust murder of George Floyd, but also the riots that resulted.
The biggest controversy is over the destruction of property; people say that violence should never be used in any situation, even in retaliation.
Though people may think they are being advocates for peace when condemning riots, they are far from it. Instead, they affirm that they value material objects over black lives.
It seems that no form of protest is good enough. Even during peaceful protests, police use brute force with no provocation. Violence rears its ugly head any chance it can get.
Hypocrisy is evident in those who condemn the activists before the police. Despite their claim of hating violence, they deem it permissible when the police or military are the perpetrators.
The theft of products from Target is not more egregious than the theft of life and liberty from black people. To compare the two is to compare African Americans to property.
“It would be morally irresponsible for me to do [condemn riots] without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society,” Martin Luther King said in his speech “The Other America”.
To take Martin Luther King’s oath of nonviolence to fit an anti-black perspective is disrespectful. The violence that took his life is the same violence that people defend in our police.
It is clear that people only fear violence when it gets too close. They do not fear dissent until they are forced to pay attention.