Amongst all the atrocities in recent occurrence, it's hard to keep anger from coming out. Of course people are going to be angry; I mean, who wouldn't be? Heck, I'm furious and disgusted. But, the sort of anger that needs to be refrained from, is the scapegoating anger. Putting the blame on the entire race, culture, or group of people who have been involved in these murders and tragedies, not only makes one appear ignorant, but makes one appear just plain silly.
One can't accuse all cops of being bad for the lack of good judgement of a scarce few. One can't accuse an entire religion of being terrorists, for the select group of radicalized jihadists. One can't accuse an entire race of being criminals, because it's just utterly untrue. That's like saying the entire white population is racist and accountable for slavery, because of the past.
The amount of scapegoating of an entire group has become excessive, especially on social media, and it doesn't help when anger leads to the strongest of opinions. The easy access to share a post and write something nasty blaming an entire group of individuals fuels this toxic fire of inaccurate-ness. Someone has every right to be irate on the unjustified murder of an innocent individual, but blame the troubled criminal, not the entire group to which that troubled criminal just so happens to be a part of.
Sometimes it's just easier to place the blame on a group, because we as humans seek answers. There's an actual psychological term for this: The Scapegoat Theory. It states that we seek to blame an outside group for our own issues (Thanks to my great psych teacher for that handy fact). We don't like having questions go unanswered, so we easily pass the blame onto an entire population of innocent folks, all due to the actions of one, or a small few. It's easier, more comforting and quite accessible to close-mindedly blame the group, but it doesn't mean it's right by any means.
The scapegoating of entire groups only leads to a more divisive and polarized nation. In times of political turmoil and daily tragedy, the last thing we need as a country is to divide even further. Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, and All Lives Matter. We don't have to be for one group and against another, because after all, the entire groups aren't accountable for a few peoples' mistakes. To prevent further prejudice and discrimination, look to blame the person who is at fault, and don't be angered at the population. Each situation is different, and the innocent folks of the group that is put to blame most likely feel the world is against them. We need to empathize with the majority of cops (which are good), and let them know we know they're still on justice's side. We need to empathize with the good of all scapegoated groups, as they must feel so unjustifiably condemned.
As the wise Jon Stewart once said, "You can truly grieve for every officer who's been lost in the line of duty in this country, and still be troubled by cases of police overreach," which should be considered when analyzing the blame for each unique and unfortunate situation.
