Fellow white people, I want you all to follow this little thought experiment with me. Imagine for a second you’re a person of color in Minneapolis. It’s been just about 4 years since Philando Castile was murdered by police, ending with an acquittal of Officer Yanez.

You’re now in the midst of a pandemic, and being a PoC, statistically more at risk of infection and death. The state is under a lockdown. While this is going on, a group of majority white people, heavily armed, essentially seize the state house because they can’t go to Chili’s...

Now, ‘surely,’ you think, ‘law enforcement won’t let this stand.’ But, sadly, it gets worse. These armed vigilantes get inches from the police and scream into their faces, and yet nothing happens. You think to yourself, ‘well, that wouldn’t have gone so smoothly if that was me.’

Fast forward a couple weeks, and a black man alleged to have committed a minor crime *pleads for his life* as an officer kneels on his neck for almost 10 minutes. This man dies as America watches. This man’s name was George Floyd.

Righteous outrage pours from communities, both black and white. ‘If armed white guys can storm the capital building, then surely we can hold protests without harm.’ Well, as @donaldglover put it: ‘This is America.’

Things escalate as tensions rise, and to top it all of, a black @CNN reporter, @OmarJimenez, is taken into custody, despite being polite and cooperative. After all, isn’t that we’re told to do when confronted by police?

And as icing on the cake, the leader of this great nation, which we’re led to believe is a panacea of racial equality because we’ve once had a black president, spouts off about ‘thugs’ and shooting looters with the military. I refuse to amplify his tweet with even a screenshot.

Given all this, fellow white folks, couldn’t you even for one second, even a split one, understand why you would be compelled to burn it all down? Now I’m not saying that’s appropriate, and we shouldn’t burn it all down. But damn if I can’t imagine how bad this all hurts for them

Ok, so I’ve had a couple thoughtful replies about looting and burning. One reply I may have been a little rude in, and I’ll accept that criticism. I want to be clear, I’m not trying to sit here and say that looting and burning stores means justice for the aggrieved...