What are your thoughts on the Protests and Riots?

As an African I understand why everyone is pissed off and wanting to f*ck sh*t up. I'm mad as hell that this continues to happen. However destroying our own communities and businesses is not the way. A lot of black owned businesses are being destroyed. We end up hurting the people we are fighting for.

I know many of the protestors are peaceful but we have others who are looking for an excuse to cause destruction. I am for the movement and for change. However I feel we need to find a better solution. We've had many protests like this before in the past few years, but little to nothing changes afterwards. My question to people is whats next after all of this is over? Lets say all the cops get arrested and jailed. What are we the black community going to do differently to prevent tragedies like this from happening and if they do occur what are we going to do differently so things don't result to this.

In my opinion we as a people need to take responsibility for our actions. Yes I agree the system is against us, and we are victims of a lot of wrong doing. However there are many issues in our community we failed to address. Like black on black violence, it does exist and its hurting our community. We don't get as upset when we commit crimes against each other. Secondly we are not united as a people, theirs a lot of tension between Blacks, Africans and Blacks from the Caribbean. We have to realize that blacks can be racist. When I came to this country in the 90's it was mainly the black kids who were calling me "african booty scratcher" "kunta kinte" and "shaka zulu". I was bullied a lot in school which caused me to get into many fights.

Another thing is voting, Many of us don't vote. And when we do we just focus on the presidential election. We have to also focus on the senate, congress and most importantly local elections. We have start putting people in power (some of our own) that can make changes within the system that will benefit us. And find a way to hold them accountable.

I know the system needs to change however we need to make changes within our community first and really bond together. I've seen we only seem to come together in times like this. But afterwards nothing really changes until another tragedy happens. A house that is divide can't stand.

This is just my opinion and thoughts. I want to hear. Please be respectful to one another in your responses.

TinyViolins · 31-35, M

These protests are not an isolated event. You've been seeing an increase in protesting in recent years, increasing apathy in the voting process, increased hatred towards the media, increasing distrust in our fellow Americans, and increased divisiveness and polarization among our leaders. These protests are revealing what has been bubbling beneath the surface for decades: the fact that we are a divided nation. People are living in very different Americas.

And it's not just along racial lines. There are economic, generational, religious, and ideological fractures all over the country. Nobody is sitting down to talk, nobody is willing to listen, so everyone is just shouting their beliefs at each other. And eventually people get tired of that and take their anger out in the form of threats, violence, and riots.

This country is broken beyond simple demographic categories. There's a sense of hopelessness among so many people that they don't know how to escape other than rejecting the system entirely, discarding civility, and refusing to acknowledge or interact with entire segments of the population. Everyone is busy pointing fingers to preserve the only thing they feel they have left, their identity, and in doing so they aren't even aware of the crumbling walls around them.

The country needs hope. It needs to believe that we can do better than this, but more importantly it needs to realize that nothing will ever improve until we can talk to each other, treat each other with respect, and realize that it's going to take all of us to bring about progress. Because all there is now is bad faith and frustration and the billionaires are laughing all the way to bank while we squabble.