I 100% agree that there was a double standard based on the way the police reacted to the rioters at the capital and the BLM protesters. I agree that it shows white privilege and social injustice and how corrupt our country actually is. I guarantee that if black people attempted to raid the U.S. Capitol, they wouldn’t even have made it as far as getting into the building.  

The violence at the Capitol sent a strong message about race in America. Based on all the videos that were going around on social media during the BLM protest I noticed how different the police reaction was compared to the rioters that stormed the Capitol. For instance, police were shooting and throwing tear gas at the protesters. I even saw this one video that I will never forget. An old man,who could barely stand on his own 2 feet, was walking among the protesters and an officer pushed him to the ground with his shield and was beating him with a baton. However, at the Capitol, they were seen escorting the rioters and taking pictures with them. This shows that our lives are not valued in the same way, proving racial double standards.

Many people believe that the events of this will change the minds of future protests. They think that we would turn away from peace and result in violence. In a recent New York Times article, entitled, “Capitol Rioters Walked Away. Climate Protesters Saw a Double Standard,” writer and activist Bill McKibben is quoted as saying, “he feared that in the future, young activists would tell him (when he advised a nonviolent path) that ‘all the peace stuff you talk about… that doesn’t work.”

Only time will tell…