 Welcome to part two. In part one of this two-part series, we broke down white privilege and black anxiety. With everything going on in the world today, we need to have a better understanding about what the African-American community is going through and why these protests and riots and everything like that are happening. So in part two of this video, we're going to be diving more into crowd psychology. How do peaceful protests turn into rioting and looting? Not only are we going to get into the mind of crowd psychology, we're also going to find out what we can do to start having better solutions. So how do we get to the place where Jake Paul was caught looting and then denied it? How did peaceful protests quickly escalate to various riots around the country? Everything started within days of the death of George Floyd when people from the community of Minneapolis started to gather together to peacefully protest his death. As discussed earlier, the entire country has reached a boiling point from being quarantined, the death of Ahmad Arbery, primarily white individuals armed with guns taking over capital buildings and then the death of George Floyd. After seeing a black man suffocated to death as four officers refused to acknowledge his humanity, it was hard for anyone to sit and simply do nothing. Soon, peaceful protests were appearing throughout the entire country as people demanded change. These protests are something that both liberals and conservatives can get behind and for once not be divided. One of the things that makes the United States a great country is that it was founded on our ability to have freedom of speech and the right to protest against a government that we feel is not doing what's right. The founding fathers of the United States escaped tyranny in England so they could have the freedom to say and believe what they want. Over the centuries, we've seen how varied views, morals, and opinions can be from one party to the next. But one thing we can all unite around is that we have the freedom to say what we want and act when we see injustices in our country. Regardless of our political affiliations, what makes us American is our right to speak up. As Americans, we have the freedom to disagree with why people are protesting but we all must come together and respect each other's right to protest. We live in very divisive times when it comes to politics and as a liberal, I know it can be easy to have prejudices against conservatives. Regardless of the conservative views I disagree with, I know that it would be ignorant to believe that all conservatives are simply morally corrupt people. I personally know conservatives were some of the nicest people I've ever met. As someone who is half black, I started to think how unfair it is of me to judge conservatives without fully understanding your point of view. So in the same way we want people to learn about racism and the struggle of African Americans, I decided that I wanted to understand the moral philosophy and psychology of conservatives. Now, you might be wondering if I was red-pilled, but that's not the case. I'm still quite liberal, but I did read a book that completely changed my perception of the world when it comes to political views. In The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Hyde, Hyde explains how neither party lacks morals, but we put more weight on certain morals. Hyde argues that essentially we all have the same morals, but we liberals value certain morals more than others. Something I learned about conservatives is that one of the values they cherish more than liberals is tradition and history. When I understood this about conservatives, I started to understand more and more why they talk about the Constitution so much and our freedom as Americans. So when these protests started, I knew that even though some conservatives may disagree with why people are protesting, they respect our right to protest. In fact, one video went viral of two white men discussing how their group was trying to protect protesters. But then something happened. Peaceful protests started turning into riots, and riots started turning into looting and vandalism. Sadly, we've even seen more death as well. In St. Louis, retired police Captain David Dorn was shot and killed while trying to protect local businesses from being looted. Peaceful protesters have been trying to stop people like Jake Paul and others from turning to violence and chaos. Yes, there are some people who are angry and they feel the only thing they can do is cause destruction. The reality we all need to face is that what we're seeing is far more complex than what we're seeing on the surface. President Trump and others would have you believe that all protesters are looters or thugs as he sends out tweets saying things like this. If you watch fake news, CNN or MSDNC, you would think that the killers, terrorists, arsonists, anarchists, thugs, hoodlums, looters, and Tifa and others would be the nicest, kindest, most wonderful people in the whole wide world. No, they are what they are, very bad for our country. Meanwhile, you have people like the son of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. tweeting out as my father explained during his lifetime, a riot is the language of the unheard. So, is Martin Luther King III justifying riots? Is President Trump right that all protesters are looters? And should we assume that everybody who looks like Jake Paul is damaging what the rest of us are trying to accomplish? Well, it's not a simple answer. So first, we need to understand crowd psychology. The first psychological study into the phenomenon of what takes place in crowds came from the French polymath, Gustave Le Bon. In 1895, Le Bon released his groundbreaking book The Crowd, a study of the popular mind. He claims that there are several key characteristics of crowds, which makes them so difficult to manage. And these characteristics include impulsiveness, irritability, incapacity to reason, absence of judgment of the critical spirit, and exaggeration of sentiments. Before we move forward, it's also important to note that Gustave Le Bon didn't research crowd psychology with good intentions. Le Bon was a 19th century social climber and cloud chaser. His goal was to teach people in power, crowd psychology, so they could manipulate the lower classes. In the last century, crowd psychology has been studied more thoroughly and is used to train some police departments in hopes to manage riots and chaos. Crowd psychology can have both good as well as terrible aspects. On the good side, people feel more connected in crowds, and these connections can improve your mental health. In Stanford psychologist Dr. Kelly McGonagall's newest book, The Joy of Movement, she has a chapter dedicated to studies that have been conducted of what happens when people move in unison. When tribes in Africa dance together, they strengthen their bonds and overall well-being. Being part of a community is one of the best things you can do for your mental health. But it also comes with its downsides. This is also why there's such camaraderie as sporting events where people join together for a chance or do the way. These can bring people together. Moving together in crowds also promotes conformity, and it can be used to the advantage of leaders and other people in power. When soldiers, police officers, and others march in unison, they feel part of a whole. While this is good when a group is fighting a good fight, it can be a sort of hypnosis for evil like we've seen from World War II Germany or what goes on in North Korea. But what about the average person in crowds? Well, as Le Bon argued, and what we've seen proven since the crowd's publication in 1895, is that the characteristic of these crowds is quite accurate. There's an incapacity for reason, an absence of judgment, impulsivity, but worst of all, a loss of autonomy. When you're part of a crowd, you lose your sense of self. You're no longer you. You're like one atom that makes up a whole. When people lose this sense of autonomy and individuality, they do things that they would never do on their own. When you're part of a crowd, you can get lost in the crowd. Like Dr. Kelly McGonagall discusses, this can be used for good, but like we've seen with recent riots and looting, this can turn into something terrible. Alone, a person can be an upstanding and completely rational person, but when emotionally charged by a crowd and while lacking autonomy, they can become dangerous. A crowd can turn into chaos, and all accountability can go out the window. A person who would never vandalize or steal in their life may smash windows, burn cars, and loot when they're part of a crowd. Without that personal autonomy, morals can slip away, and people feel that they can't be held accountable for what they do when they're lost in the crowd. It's also important to understand that much like our trauma responses, these are often unconscious. Some people go to a protest with every intention of being peaceful, but when the emotions of the crowd rises, a peaceful protester can turn into a looter if they lose their sense of self. What we also need to realize is that we're seeing the same crowd psychology with the police. Over the last week, we've seen countless videos of police officers assaulting protesters, which is completely insane seeing as how people are protesting police violence. So why are the police being so violent? Because they're lost in the crowd. We often forget that police officers are just human beings, and they could be the same victims of psychological flaws as the rest of us. As these officers are in their large groups, they also lose their autonomy. These police officers can shoot rubber bullets, pepper spray people, and beat people with metal rods while believing they're protected by the anonymity of the crowd. I don't know about you, but when I watch these videos of police officers in full riot gear beating civilians, I can't tell one of them from the rest. But was MLK the third right to cite his father's code of rioting being the language of the unheard? Currently, his tweet has over 2.1 million likes and 559,000 retweets. Since then, we've seen people use it in whatever context they see fits their narrative. Many people are pointing out that when MLK Jr said this, he wasn't promoting riots. MLK was a man of peaceful protest and nonviolent resistance. But he said this to help people understand why people riot. We must understand that you can explain why something is happening without condoning the action itself. So why are riots the language of the unheard? First, we must turn to the groundbreaking work of the famous psychologist Dr. Martin Seligman. Seligman and his fellow researchers discovered what they called learned helplessness. What they did was place a dog in a shuttle box and conditioned the dog to know that when a sound went off, one side of the box would be shocked. So the dog would have to jump over to avoid being shocked. With another group of dogs, they did the same thing. But both sides of the box would shock him. The dog quickly learned that if he jumped over, he would be shocked anyways. Eventually, these dogs just stopped jumping, even when they stopped electrocuting one side of the box, giving the dog a place of safety. At first, Seligman and his team thought these dogs must have some sort of defect, but then they altered their understanding of what was happening, which was learned helplessness. These dogs realized that whether they tried to avoid the shock or not, they were getting shocked. So they just gave up. Later, this same study was done with humans, but with an annoying sound instead. For one group, they could make this sound stop by hitting a sequence of buttons. For another group, the sound wouldn't stop no matter which buttons they pressed. Due to learned helplessness, group two just stopped trying to press the buttons and gave up. They even put group two in a room where all they had to do was simply wave their hand to make the sound stop. But these people felt so defeated that they didn't even discover how simple it was to turn the sound off. Now that you understand learned helplessness, imagine being black in America. After hundreds of years of slavery, the civil rights movement, and more, you still see your people being targeted and killed on a regular basis. Although many people maintain hope and continue to march and protest, we have millions of African Americans who have developed learned helplessness and have just given up. But how does that explain riots and vandalism? If learned helplessness results in taking no action at all, what's happening with those who are angry? Something people don't realize about learned helplessness is that when some people reach this point, they realize that they have nothing to lose. And this is how a lot of people are starting to feel. In a study from Dirk Lindebaum and Giannis Gabriel titled, Anger and Organization Studies from Social Disorder and Moral Order, they state, In this essay, we oppose current conceptualizations of anger as at least a temporary individual psychological disorder and as the cause of social disorder. We develop the view that anger can be a profoundly moral emotion aimed at maintaining moral order and restoring social order when this has been ruptured. Moral anger is distinguished from other types of anger, like the ones arising from routine frustration, breakdowns of communication, and ego violations. Through a close reading of the jury drama, 12 Angry Men, we demonstrate that moral anger has an information dimension signaling a rupture of moral code as well as an inergic dimension as a source of energy aimed at putting right a wrong. We conclude that a world without anger would be possibly a compliant and quiescent world, but not a just world. The researchers discuss and analyze the source of social anger, but something we started to see with some of the vandalism and looting was that it wasn't coming from people of color who have felt unheard and helpless. We started to see white people were using these protests as another way to exploit their white privilege and avoid consequences. During this time we've seen quite a few videos of black people trying to stop white people from vandalizing and looting because this has become another source of their black anxiety. We must understand black anxiety and the fact that black people have become the whipping boy as a result of white privilege and this is why people have become so outraged at people like Jake Paul as well as others taking advantage of this time that's meant to speak up about change through peaceful protest. After a slew of video and photo evidence was presented showcasing Jake Paul actively participating in looting and vandalism in Arizona, he presented a statement in an effort to clear his name. To be absolutely clear, neither I nor anyone in our group was engaged in any looting or vandalism. For context we spent the day doing our part to peacefully protest one of the most horrific injustices our country has ever seen which led us to being tear gas for filming the events and brutality that were unfolding in Arizona. We were gassed and forced to keep moving on foot. We filmed everything we saw in an effort to share our experience and bring more attention to the anger felt in every neighborhood we traveled through. We were strictly documenting, not engaging. I do not condone violence, looting, or breaking the law. However, I understand the anger and frustration that led to the destruction we witnessed and while it's not the answer it's important that people see it and collectively figure out how to move forward in a healthy way. We are all doing the best we can to be helpful and raise awareness. This is not the time to attack each other, it's time to join together and evolve. Some people reading this were gullible enough to believe Jake Paul but others, especially people of color, saw this as just another example of white privilege. Much like Central Park Karen, Jake Paul and others exploit their white privilege to claim innocence while they act oblivious to what they're doing. In order to truly understand how to start repairing this country, we not only need to admit that white privilege is not a myth, but we need to understand how and why it hides in plain sight. So why do people like Jake Paul deny using their white privilege when it's so blatant to others? And why was it such a bold move for his brother Logan Paul to acknowledge his white privilege on his recent podcast? In their article, Heard Invisibility, the Psychology of Racial Privilege, Lowry and Phillips argue that white people have motives for denying their privilege and many aren't even aware that they're doing it. In this study, they argue that there are two primary reasons white people deny their privilege. First, whites want to feel innocent and the basic desire to think well of the self-constrained acceptable means of maintaining dominance and the privilege it entails. For a white person like Jake Paul to admit his privilege, it would also make him question whether or not he deserves everything he has in life. Our ego provides us with self-confidence and tells us that meritocracy exists. We didn't get to where we are because of the color of our skin. We got there because we're great at what we do. Jake Paul also claims innocence because to admit to his white privilege would also have to mean that we live in a system that holds down people of color and that he might be contributing to it. So in an effort to protect that innocence, he denies that it exists. Lowry and Phillips go on to say that the second reason is as follows. Whites want to maintain privilege and racial privileges depend on the stability of an unequal racialized social system that tends to provoke resistance. This puts pressure on individuals to hide privilege and its illegitimacy from others. They're arguing that we love our privilege. Being white has a ton of perks to it. In an old Chris Rock stand-up, Rock jokes that there's a one-legged white bellboy in the lobby who wouldn't trade places with them and then Rock reminds the audience that he's rich. Being white is like a bank error in your favor. You can either tell people about this error and forfeit the money or you can pretend like it's completely normal and justify why you should keep it. Unfortunately, as Lowry and Phillips point out, maintaining white privilege is 100% contingent upon maintaining an unequal and unjust society. The two authors know that not every white person exploits white privilege, but they also explain how people like Jake Paul pass their privilege on to others. Lowry and Phillips explain this by comparing herd invisibility to herd immunity, which a lot of us have recently learned about. We suggest that individual innocence projects infuse into broader practices, policies, and structures. When individuals work to maintain their own innocence, they shape shared social experiences, letting that innocence ripple beyond the individual. In turn, whites benefit from herd invisibility that emerges at the social level. We conceptualize herd invisibility by following the herd immunity model of vaccination. When enough individuals are vaccinated, the incidence of disease is reduced for the entire population, protecting those who are not vaccinated. Similarly, herd invisibility protects innocence and privileges for all whites, even without every individual white person acting on individual innocence or maintenance motives. So, even though there are those who aren't exploiting their white privilege like Jake Paul, other whites are still benefiting from it. If we're going to tackle the issue of white privilege and people like Jake Paul continuing to make black people the whipping boy when it comes to crimes that are committed, we need to start addressing the subject. But as you've learned, one of the main reasons white people don't call out other white people on their privilege as much as they should is because this privilege has a ton of perks. More importantly, we don't have these conversations largely because of white fragility. If any part of this video has made you uncomfortable thus far, you're more than likely suffering from white fragility. As a half black man who looks white, I too can relate to some of the symptoms of white fragility. But I finally took the steps necessary to address it. A year or two ago, I came across the book White Fragility. Why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism by Dr. Robin D'Angelo, but I avoided it. I figured this was some social justice book that was just going to beat down white people and tell them how terrible they are. But in light of recent events, I wanted to understand why our country is the way it is, and it's time to educate myself even if I ignorantly think I'm going to disagree with the premise. I ended up binging D'Angelo's book White Fragility in about a day. And I think this should be a must read for any white person who says they want to help make changes to society, but don't know how. This book is going to make you uncomfortable. But right now we're dealing with an issue that's going to require all of us to get uncomfortable. Dr. D'Angelo touches on white privilege a few times throughout the book, but the core of this book is about how defensive white people get in conversations around race and why. D'Angelo is a white woman and she doesn't claim to have all the answers, but she believes the solution starts with us becoming self-aware of the major problem around white fragility. She brings up countless arguments and studies to explain white fragility, but I think the best one is in the chapter, The Good Slash Bad Binding. Basically, she discusses how we trick ourselves into believing that any form of racism means that you're some card-holding clan member, but that's not the case. If you do or say something racist, it doesn't mean that you're a bad person. But in most cases, it means that you may not fully understand why what you did could be considered racist. Unfortunately, due to white fragility, pointing out forms of racism makes white people immediately jump on the defensive. I think what I found most fascinating about this book is how Dr. D'Angelo explains how liberal progressives actually have more racist tendencies than most even though they believe they are helping. Because of this idea of complete innocence, progressives believe that there's nothing they're possibly doing in their life that's problematic. I believe that a great example is Jake Paul, while not personally knowing him or his politics, but my guess is that he leans more towards the liberal side. Even with his liberal views, his looting is taking advantage of a system that provides him with privilege while oppressing people of color. He also didn't see anything problematic with his racist comments towards the Martinez twins when they were part of Team 10. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if Central Park Karen also identifies as a liberal, and this is the point that Dr. Robin D'Angelo is trying to stress to a liberal and progressive audience. So if you're like me, you've been asking yourself during these crazy times, what's the solution? So far, we've discussed how the deaths of Amon Arbery and George Floyd have brought us to where we're at. We have a better understanding of crowd psychology and how peaceful protests can turn into riots and looting, as well as possible reasons why police are attacking civilians. We've learned about the contrast between black anxiety and white privilege, and now it's time to figure out where we go from here. For anyone who feels helpless, psychologist Martin Seligman has found the trip of learned helplessness is learned optimism. Each one of us must clutch onto the belief that if we take action, we can make change happen. But although I've trained myself to be optimistic, I'm also a realist. Like many of the psychologists and authors we've discussed thus far, I don't think we'll ever fully eradicate racism. But I do think there are steps we can collectively take to make this world a better place for the people of all colors. If you've made it to the end of this video, you've already taken a great first step. You've confronted your white fragility and are willing to listen to some of the difficult truths. Right now, we're seeing many other people take action and march alongside African-Americans and the black lives not in movement. We must remember that now is a time for people to continue challenging their fragility and listen to people of color to better understand what we can do to that change. Next, I truly believe that education is the key. Dr. Robin D'Angelo says that something white people need to stop doing is relying on black people to take on the burden of educating them about racism. Racism is a problem white people have and D'Angelo says that if you were diagnosed with an illness, you do the research and educate yourself. Although I'm half black, I too benefit from white privilege based on the luck of the genetic law. I will never have to experience what people like my father and other family members have to experience. So I've decided to educate myself so I can become a better ally and advocate for equal rights in the fight against racism. Recently, I purchased the following books, White Fragility by Dr. Robin D'Angelo, How to Be Black by Baratunde Thurston, Malcolm and Me by Ishmael Reed, Bias, Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think and Do by Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt, Blind Spot by Mazurin Benaji and Anthony Greenwald, How to Be an Anti-Racist by Dr. Eberm Kengyu. And I also highly suggest Born a Crime by the Daily Show host Trevor Miller. If you're trying to figure out what you can do, education is a great place to start. I provided affiliate links down in the description below to all of the books I've listed. If we really want to make a change, the bare minimum we can do is read books to educate ourselves about what black people are going through and what we can do to help. Most of all, we need self-awareness. Neil Brennan is a comedian and former writer of The Chappelle's Show. He's the whitest guy you'll ever meet, but he's been a black ally for years and his friends with many black people. And even he can admit with everything he does to support black people, he's made a million racial mistakes, but he tries to learn from them. Jenna Marbles is another great example of self-awareness. Like Logan Paul, a while back she was able to publicly acknowledge her white privilege. The only way any of us can solve a problem is to start by acknowledging that the problem exists. For most of us, our primary problems include white fragility as well as the denial of white privilege. Until these problems are facing confronted, little can be done to make effective change, and the change starts with you and me. Systemic racism and police brutality is a major problem that must be addressed, but these problems can't be resolved overnight. We live in a country that's been propped up by racism and oppression, but that doesn't mean that we give up. Each one of us has the power to make a small difference, and as you can see, when each of us comes together to do our part, we can make amazing things happen. So today, I challenge you to educate yourself, become aware of the problems going, what privileges you take advantage of, and most of all, be willing to listen. When we're able to do this, we can practice compassionate empathy and turn this into a world that we're all proud to live in. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for making it again through one of these very long video essays. I absolutely love making these. I'm glad that you guys are enjoying them as well. And like I mentioned, make sure you check out the description down below. I put all the books that I've been reading lately, and a great place to start is just by educating yourself, understanding what is going on in this world, what people are going through, what we can do to make this world a better place. All right, and do me a favor, share this video and help spread some awareness, because once we become more self-aware, we can start working on these problems together. All right, but anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And a huge, huge thank you to everybody who supports the channel over on Patreon, as well as everybody who supports the channel by buying my mental health books at therewiredsoul.com and everybody who gets merged from the merch store. You're all awesome. All right, thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.