As dangerous and senseless and counter-intuitive these riots are, try to remember the situation these people are put into in these ghettos. Before all of you 17-year-olds with poor critical reading accuse me of condoning there actions, let me make it clear that I don't. I fully understand that these riots will never solve anything, and it's only going to turn public opinion against a group of people who really don't deserve it. Certainly, another figure like MLK has to emerge and put some purpose behind all of this anger and frustration, or I'm afraid race relations are going to be set back decades.

I know a lot of us just wonder why these people aren't taking personal responsibility. And they should. But I'm not sure we, as a country, appreciate the position these people have been put in. Every time something happens, emancipation, the civil rights movement, it's supposed to change things. And things do change. Sort of. Could you imagine being a part of a country where you feel like a pariah? From treatment by the police, to their pathetic public education, to a culture of violence, ignorance, bigotry and materalism, and you expect them all to simply overcome their situation? Most people have a hard enough time believing their country cares about them, only their country doesn't actively try to keep them down. I don't think people appreciate enough what massive disadvantages these people are born with. They imagine themselves and their own backgrounds and experiences and they apply and extrapolate and think "I would make it out, for sure. I have personal responsibility, a nifty pair of boot straps, etc etc yadda yadda."

Anyway, these riots should be condemned. Just don't let them erase all the progress that has been made.