To Break the Bubble

Let me just clarify something that’s weighed heavy on my mind. Our cause is not violence. It never has been, and it never will be about violence. To those who protest violent ends in the name of BLM, this is not an accurate representation of the movement. Black Lives Matter is not about retribution, or revenge. It pains me to see it portrayed as such on various media outlets. To say that individual protesters speak out for the entire movement is to tell a half-truth. Don’t even take my word for it — if you have questions, talk to others too. Hear their stories. It’s disappointing to see the overwhelming majority arguing about why they don’t support the cause, or why they don’t see the point in protesting. But, the media is extremely capable of misrepresenting stories to fit certain ends. We need to be aware of that. So, maybe the lack of support is due to a simple misunderstanding. Maybe it’s due to ignorance, prejudice, biases. But, what we need to realize...

Fact: In a position of power, people tend to conform to social roles, stereotypes, and behaviors expected of that position of power. Sound familiar? Zimbardo’s highly controversial, yet globally-recognized “Stanford Prison Experiment” shares some interesting parallels with the numerous cases of police brutality. Fact: Anonymity means power. The experiment relied on the guards wearing the same clothes: khaki pants, dark sunglasses, a club and a whistle. Eye-contact was kept to a minimum. Here are some general inventory list for riot gear: Riot helmet with face shields, polycarbonate riot batons, and riot guns. Fact: Cops dressed up as soldiers will act as soldiers. This cause we fight for is as much a psychological issue as it is a moral one. As we redress our police in military clothes, they will adapt to fill the military niche — they will conform to unprescribed social roles, unclear stereotypes, and uninstructed behaviors. They may be fighting in a war they had no i...

“Can we talk about something else? I want things to go back to normal.” We've heard people say this same thing vocally or implicitly, through their silence and inaction, through their posts of picturesque beach vacations amidst police brutality, not only in the past week, but the past few years. Normal. What is the word normal even supposed to mean? What does it mean to you? Comfort? Considerable convenience? Maybe complacency. Because the Normal I know is ignorant. This Normal is a follower. This Normal wants what’s easy.  This Normal has behaved as it’s pleased for decades, reshaping and reforming itself after every movement, every valiant attempt at change. But Normal comes back every time— evolving into a smarter, stealthier version of injustice. And now it’s this Normal’s fault that too many young innocent black men have been killed. It’s this Normal’s fault that thousands have been wrongfully subjected to the amalgamation of humiliation, viole...

For a dominant species, we’ve got a lot to learn about power. For a social species, we’ve got a lot to learn about social justice. We’ve got a lot to learn about fairness. Equality. And, quite frankly, we’re pretty stupid when it comes to generosity. We call ourselves human, and yet where did the giving go? To all of you in whatever walk of life you may come from: do you want our children to grow up in a world like this? Do you want our children to look up to us as the villains of a children’s book? While good-intentioned, Instagram stories and Twitter retweets can only take us so far. We must not let our cause die if the trend ever does. The amount of respect I have for those who take action against maltreatment is immeasurable. There are no words I can write to show my appreciation for those both on the frontlines of both the pandemic and the demand for action. For someone who’s always enjoyed dystopic novels for a majority of my teenage years, the world’s drawing awfu...

Being a bystander is just being another part of the problem. There’s no space, no time, and no need for inaction in a world where the media controls justice more than the policing forces of our world. Is it not sad that violent protests operate as a means for shifting the perspective of the enforcers , the proponents , and the so-called  advocates for justice? Is it not sad that a media storm — spanning our endless reach of social media — was necessary to effect change? I want to believe that peace can drive away violence. I want to believe that George Floyd will be the turning point — the last crack in the dam built up by years of bribes, hate, apathy. Lies. And I want to believe that you want to believe that, too. “The way things have been done” needs to end. If there’s a lack of funding towards our social policies — a neglect for equality, for equity, for justice — we need to stop patching the walls with bandaids. We need to rebuild the whole thing. Remember this: Geo...

“There are leaders, and there are followers.” Are we so one-dimensional that we can so easily be sorted into such boxes? Do we lack the depth to be anything but a leader or a follower? Of course not. The problem with much of the leadership today is that many enter the global scene with a certain mentality. I am a leader. I’m expected to be strong. A good leader is a strong leader, and we elect strong leaders. If I push for the goals I stand for, I am a good leader. In this leader mentality, there is little room for followers. Because it makes us… passive? Weak? Submissive? As the Earth continues spinning along, our world is constantly changing. In a time like this, we need to reconsider. We need to rethink how we lead. Because many of the leaders we’ve chosen would rather butt heads than work together. How does that make sense when we all seek the same goals? If you are part of a voting country, voting is one of the most powerful tools we have to accomplish this. On the wor...

The most important part of a marathon is the first step. The first step towards a solution is a plan. And the best plan one could ever make is to have no plan. Don’t come to the table with one  solution. Bring everything you’ve got to the table. The world needs our solutions, our stories, our hardships, our triumphs. As I have yet to enter the adult workforce, I’m realizing that it’ll soon be our generation’s turn to inherit many of the jobs which either exist or will exist in the next few years. And with them, the problems of our world. I’m sure, in time, the collaborative mindset will become less of a mindset, but more of a reality. The world will be our group project. If we ever want to stop making the same mistakes, we need to tackle everything together. There’s no space for slackers. We need to think boldly. Creatively. Together. The constant damage that is done to the environment won’t wait for us to “get it together.” We need to stop playing a game of political Min...

There are no winners in a situation like this. Unfortunately, that’s not the way some people see these things. There are always more opportunities to get ahead. There are always more profits to make. There is always more land to wrestle away. There is always, always, a scapegoat to blame. We’re absolutely, incredibly, extremely talented at making excuses. At fabricating explanations. When we really want something, rhyme and reason become clay at our hands — molded and twisted into any situation we desire it to fit. In the world in your head, everything makes sense. Unluckily for you, that’s not the world you or I live in. This isn’t a world of simply good and evil. Rarely are many things either one or the other. I’ve been called immature or idealistic for believing the world is full of good, yet misguided people. It’s been a heavy point of criticism — I believe too much in goodness or I trust too easily — and maybe in this world that’s weakness. I’ve come to know that we ne...

Any one can’t do everything, but everyone can do anything. The time to physically come together has past, but we will meet again. That time will come again. There will be a day where our faces light up as our best friend or a long-lost sibling sits down on a park bench, next to us. There will be a time where pixels, lighting up a screen, will be replaced by genuine smiles, illuminating our lives once more. There will be a day when restaurants will open, parades will go on, and schools will resume. These times will come again. But for now, I encourage you to take a chance. When this is all over, you and I will be different. The human race will not come out of this the same. That’s guaranteed. But we can guarantee to ourselves how we want to come out of this. You can guarantee how you want to come out of this. Let’s not allow political borders and climates, the fact that I am a man or you are a woman, or the difference in my age and yours divide us any longer. I am a hu...

If any of you can explain to me why people are capable of good or evil, you get a gold star. I’m kidding about the gold star — I don’t have any. Would a Nobel Peace Prize suffice? A few years ago, I learned about what people thought about good or evil. John Locke presents the tabula rasa — the blank slate — in that humans are born neither bad nor good, but their character is based upon the environment they grow up in. Now, what does that say about our so-called civilized world? Do bad people reflect a similarly maligned society? Rousseau and Hobbes propose the opposite. Rousseau suggests that humans are born inherently good, and Hobbes suggests that humans are naturally bad. While interesting theories, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. Whether or not some are inherently good and some are inherently bad — the environment one grows up in will /always/ change their character. We can fix our society, and therefore we can save our people. I have always believed there will...

The world’s filled with all sorts of people. I’m lucky to be privileged enough to view the world and its entire spectrum of people. I’m lucky to be alive in a time of social distancing and isolation. In a world where the infodemic reigns alongside the pandemic, it’s important in this confusion of misinformation and widespread panic to realize how we want to emerge from this chaos. The silver lining is that we get to confront ourselves — to get a good look in the mirror of who we really are, and get a good long look at that. Like an oxidized onion, we’ve got a good chance to get back to who we really are, underneath all the refined layers. And from this emerge three important questions we need to answer in this time. Who are we? I’m not talking about individuals  — I mean the entire human species. What have we done? And what will we do? Now that we’ve been effectively been grounded by nature — rebuked and told to go to the corner and think about what we did — it’s a good tim...