"Hypocrisy is the mother of all evil and racial prejudice is still her favorite child." - Don King

As our nation begins to recover from the tragic events of the Las Vegas shooting, news is circulating surrounding double standards. Double standards is defined as a set of principles that applies differently and usually more rigorously to one group of people or circumstances than to another.

Over time, we've seen a trend of injustice and racism within our communities. We've seen the recent events of the Take A Knee Movement. We've seen the things said and done concerning Charlottesville, and we've most recently seen Eminem diss our president. Within each spectrum of these things, double standards are prominent issues. The words white privilege and white supremacy are not far from the human vocabulary. It is in these moments that the proof of these things become openly evident to the country, and it is our duty as autonomous citizens to do what is right with that information.

Stephan Paddock was a white male who killed fifty nine people. Brock Turner was a white male who raped a woman. Adam Lanza was a white male who killed twenty children.

Sandra Bland was an African American woman who died in police custody. Trayvon Martin was an African American teenager who was shot and killed on his way home. Philando Castile was an African American man who was also shot and killed after being pulled over by a cop.

Why are all these people important?

Stephen Paddock committed the largest mass shooting in the United States, and what did the media do? They humanized him. News sources throughout America labeled him as mentally ill, a lone wolf, and a gambler. Not once did they label him as a terrorist or any type of horrible person. The media yearned for you to feel for him. They portrayed Stephen Paddock in a way that did not reflect the 59 first degree counts of manslaughter he would have been charged with.

Brock Turner raped an unconscious woman at a Stanford frat party. He got out of prison within three months, not even finishing his full six month sentence. His father, as well as him, blamed alcohol on the crime. They slut shamed and fed rape culture with every bone in their bodies. They used statements such as "twenty minutes of action should not ruin my son's life for the next twenty years," and his mugshot was never used for a single news article. Instead, they published his Stanford school photo to identify him.

Sandra Bland was arrested due to unpaid traffic tickets. She later died in police custody, after potentially being hidden for far longer than acceptable. She was portrayed as a thug, and a criminal. Not a woman who was merely arrested for something you and I could also have been arrested for.

Travyon Martin was killed on his way home with nothing but a bag of skittles in his hand. He was also portrayed as a thug. The media claimed that he attacked his assailant prior to being shot, causing reason to "defend himself." In the eyes of the media, he was not at all innocent.

Philando Castile was killed after being pulled over by a cop. He was unarmed, and potentially not a threat. However, Castile was portrayed by the media as a criminal, going as far as to pull up a 2009 arrest to justify these thoughts. The media also overlooked the fact that Castile contributed vastly to his community and held a well respected place within it.

Some of these people either committed heinous crimes, or they had heinous crimes committed against them. However, they didn't receive media coverage that expressed their truths, rather a lie that unsurprisingly treated one race differently than the other.

What should I do with this information?

This is not a first and it will not be a last. I am not telling you what to think. I'm simply stating what I see, and providing you with links that give you more to see. As free thinkers we have the choice to make our own conscious decisions, but these decisions affect our future.

Right now, our future is uncertain and scary. White privilege is very real in some instances. We live in a nation that is run by a hetero-patriarchal white society. All I wanted to do was instill a thought inside your head. I want you as readers to want to learn more. To read more. I've provided you with links to these occurrences, please do the research and make your decision. I know I've already made mine.