Most of the racism that still persists in America is directly due to how the media encourages fear, distrust and hate. They pounce on any story they can spin into a mountain of rage clicks from people trying to validate their hatred of other people based on their perceived sense of injustice.

There was a Black man who was shot and killed by a cop recently and before the bodycam footage was released, the media had already whipped the locals into a frenzy and protests against racist police brutality sprung up almost instantly. The story was framed as another racist cop unjustly killing a Black man.

Then the bodycam footage was released -- and the footage showed the man who died had rear-ended the cop car hard and as the cop emerged from his cruiser he saw the guy sprinting towards him with a knife at the ready. The cop asked him to drop the knife several times, and eventually shot the man to save himself.

But the damage was already done. The community was outraged and most probably never saw the bodycam footage. They have another incident wedged into their mind as yet another example of how cops just murder Black men.

Our irresponsible media is making all of this worse every time they report on something with the intent of sparking race-based outrage to get views and clicks. Its deeply upsetting and turning us against each other, or at the very least, making us less trusting of our neighbors.