Empathy

Thanks to my White Privilege, I don't know what it's like to lose a child  or a friend or a parent to police brutality. But I think we can all get a sense for the anger in the pocket of Baltimore that is home to our fellow Americans no matter how "thuggish" or poor. The problems arise when all the White Privileged news anchors pontificate on the evils of Thug Life and the wanton destruction of property without stepping back and realizing/understanding/acknowledging/reporting that this violent anger is not about one man's broken back, but about a system that has betrayed a large portion of its citizens.

As Ta-Nehisi Coates said, "When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con. And none of this can mean that rioting or violence is "correct" or "wise," any more than a forest fire can be "correct" or "wise." Wisdom isn't the point tonight. Disrespect is. In this case, disrespect for the hollow law and failed order that so regularly disrespects the community."

This makes the horrible vandalism in Baltimore, less unexpected.