We've all seen the news months ago about people hoarding necessities (mostly toilet paper and hand sanitizer) and now we've been seeing the looting that has happened outside some of the riots that have taken place.

There's a certain connection that I thought was very interesting between the two events. Both have acquired some sort of public hysteria around them, with the stress of a pandemic and spreading the virus and the anger that was sparked from the systematic oppression of people of color within the justice system. With than hysteria, both causes have stemmed off, to some extent, to revolve around consumerism. Let me explain...

With COVID-19, people rushed to the stores to buy massive amounts of products. With the riots that have occurred, looters rushed to the stores to steal massive amounts of products. Do you see what I'm getting at?

When people are stressed and need a sense of security they turn to major corporations to obtain goods so they feel safer, but when people are angry at the justice system and government they turn on those major corporations and steal those goods as a form of rebellion.

In America, we're such a consumer-driven society that no matter what the issue, either pandemic or systematic oppression, it has us running to these stores to give us either a sense of security during a time of need or a sense of rebellion during a time of uncertainty and anger. It's a really interesting concept I thought about and look to delve further into the connection of consumerism with the latter, and hope others would as well.

On that note, Black Lives Matter.