1/n To be completely frank, while I DO sympathize with the Floyd family, I do NOT sympathize (which is not to say I think they shouldn't be allowed to protest) with the protestors (whether violent or non-violent), at least insofar as they think this is ALL about...
2/n 'systemic racism' and 'privilege'. At the same time, I do UNDERSTAND the protestors and don't hold entirely blame them. They've been fed a lot of lies and bad information over the past decades. 
3/n The media helped to promote the narrative and the worldviews that motivate such people. It has encouraged people to view complicated issues entirely through the lens of race.
4/n It has encouraged people to view or stereotype all white people--a population with immense internal diversity, in terms of ancestry, experiences and outcomes--as privileged oppressors or 'Karens'
5/n It has encouraged people to think 'color' is the most important attribute of other human beings, and has thus divided the world between people who 'have color' and people that don't
6/n It has fed the perception that 'oppression' is rampant and confronts 'marginalized groups' at every street corner
7/n Many of these graphs are reposts, btw. But I think they bring important context to the current moment, so I'm sharing them again
8/n
9/n It's not clear the extent that people appreciate how beholden their perceptions of reality are to the media. Whatever the case, there is a very strong correlation (r=0.9) between such coverage and racial attitudes (for more on the latter, see here )
10/n A granger test even *suggests* a causal relationship (i.e. media trends predict shifts in racial attitudes, but racial attitudes don't predict shifts in media coverage).
11/n Anyway, I probably should have just a more elaborated written an article about all of this. I suppose I'll try to get around to it this week. Stay tuned.
12/n One last post for good measure
13/n Okay. In light of some of the responses I've received, Let me just add that there is some evidence suggesting that libs actually have inaccurate (and cons more accurate) perceptions of the extent of anti-black discrimination.
14/n This question remains considerably under-researched, though (in fact, the above data is the only I can find that directly gets at the question). Other studies more generally on perceptions of inequality are suggestive though journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11… journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…
15/n Theoretically speaking, it makes a lot of sense: liberals=unjust world bias, high injustice sensitivity, greater emphasis on external locus of control/environmental forces; conservatives= just world bias, greater emphasis on internal locus of control/individual agency.
