A “Foreigner’s” Perspective on What’s Happening in America
The obvious, the overlooked, and the growing concern.
It’s been four weeks since my last blog post. I took a two-week break to reinvigorate my mind and focus on other responsibilities. But then, the murder of George Floyd happened and in retrospect, it was the right choice to stay put for a couple more weeks, open my ears, and listen to what people have to say regarding racial issues in the United States.
Initially, I was not going to comment much on this issue because of a certain reason — its perception of being a “controversial” or an “uncomfortable” topic for some readers. However, as the week went by and more voices were being spread around social media (even amongst my closest friends), it became apparent to me that I need to write about the topic.
Personally, writing has always been my go-to avenue to settle my mind and formulate my thoughts, while at the same time sharing my perspective with others in hopes of adding value to the readers.
The Obvious
Let’s get the obvious thing out of the way. Racism is wrong; its apparent; and the US needs to do better/ The murder of George Floyd was inhumane and the police officers who participated in the act should be charged appropriately according to the rules of law. What baffled me so much when I first heard the story is not the murder (perhaps we’ve been desensitized as a society), but the lack of immediate action from Minnesota’s institutions. Anybody who spent the time to actually watch the full video first before commenting on the tragedy would understand how incredibly horrifying it was to watch, and how blatantly obvious that these officers were in the wrong.
It took weeks before Derek Chauvin got convicted and arrested. I understand that there are procedures that need to be followed, but I’m also certain that some of these procedures can be expedited if the state worked together. The lack of immediate action over something that’s so ludicrously black-and-white wrong fueled the people’s anger which then turned into protests and riots. If Minnesota is a company, its CEO would’ve fired an employee that did such a thing within seconds. Mayhap it is not the right thing to compare a government with a company, or maybe it accentuates our government’s inefficiency, but I couldn’t help to think that if swift actions were taken, perhaps the public’s reaction would’ve been different.
The Overlooked
As a society, we all agreed that the murder was wrong, and it was hopeful to see that the tragedy wasn’t politicized as much as other issues. But as the days went by, the topic of discussion shifted to the protests and riots that were happening all across the country. Without a doubt, I’m confident to say that this was the most polarizing topic that I can recall in the last five years.
Regardless of whether you agree, partially agree, or disagree with the protests, I want to offer a different perspective and hypothesize on what I think caused the latest protest to become such a massive and emotionally fueled movement compared to various protests in the past.
While the murder obviously started the movement (I’m not downplaying the seriousness of the tragedy), I believe that people greatly overlooked two crucial factors that have been impacting lives in America — wealth disparity and Covid-19 quarantine.
Humans are creatures of self-preservation. When we have a comfortable life where all of our basic needs become an excess, we tend to become compliant with the status quo; while the opposite is also true. When people don’t have the capital to preserve their basic needs, they’re more inspired to instigate changes (whether it be radical or not) by demanding the people in power to act. An example of this can be observed in the last Hong Kong protest. The mainstream media narrative might be covering stories about how liberal studies in schools helped spark the protest in Hong Kong when it was no secret that Hong Kong is one of the most unequal and expensive cities to live in with insane housing costs that’s especially impacting its younger population.
I believe that the same argument can be applied to the current situation in the United States. Once again, this observation is not meant to downplay the seriousness of the tragedy and how it sparked people’s emotion, but it is intended to underline facts that I believe tend to be overlooked.
Income inequality in the US is already more apparent than it has ever been, and the recession caused by Covid-19 only exacerbated its growth to an unacceptable level. When 20 million people lost their job and the stock market experience a V-shaped recovery, it’s a sign the changes to the current system are necessary. Ray Dalio has repeatedly said that the current form of capitalism needs reform. It causes massive income inequality which then becomes a national emergency in itself.
Personally, I believe that the act of acquiring capital and deploying it to support causes that you believe in such as what Robert F. Smith did when he paid for the entire Morehouse College students’ debt is one of the best ways to create changes. As sad as it sounds, dinero rules in this capitalistic society, and if we can learn one thing from history, we know that this concept is not going anywhere in the near future.
The Growing Concern
To be honest, it was not an easy decision to write about this topic.
I’m fully comfortable with taking a stance or in giving my “hot-take” for any other issues publicly, but because of the problem that I will explain below, I had my own doubts and concerns. Although I don’t have strong evidence to provide, I’m quite certain that this feeling of mine is shared by a lot of people.
Discussions on whether the protests were right or wrong happened constantly on social media for days (even weeks), with both sides typically providing arguments that the other side is completely in the wrong. For example, there was a pattern on social media that publicly called out others to share posts on systemic racism and to support the protest wholeheartedly, categorizing those who chose not to do so as a “part of the problem”; while the other side thought that these protestors deserved to be treated roughly by the police or national guards because of all the looting that occurred.
I believe that such an extreme way of thinking, being forced into choosing one or the other in a binary manner, is exactly the core problem of this (and most modern) issues. Similar to the political scene in the US, one seemingly needs to be either extremely left leaning or right leaning in order to get the most votes. While in reality, there is a significant portion of people that are moderate, who can agree with some ideas from both sides of the aisle. Essentially, there are individuals that want to ask questions, be a part of genuine discussions, and have the freedom to disagree on some ideas without being completely chastised right off the bat.
In the above example, such a way of extreme thinking would force an individual to fully support the protests including the looting and burning without being able to question the negative behavior of some protestors or the implications that the protests have on small businesses or the spread Covid-19. Any opinions that are against these protests, no matter how genuine or nuanced, will get shut down immediately and the person who said it deemed to be against the entire movement. On the contrary, it will also force an individual to fully reject the protests by claiming that there’s no positive impact that it will bring for the society or believing in unproven theories such as ANTIFA being behind the protests.
Professor Scott Galloway recently mentioned this concern in his podcast, especially surrounding college students in the US. As someone that only recently graduated college (2 years), I certainly felt that such an extreme way of thinking is real and more apparent than ever in a college environment. The key here is to differentiate views that are obviously wrong such as being racist or inhumane, with views that require nuanced discussions. The year 2020 has been rough for everyone — I sincerely hope that as a society, we can be less polarized, have genuine discussions, and move forward to create a better future.
-Marco
Originally published at https://www.marcomanoppo.com on July 3, 2020.
