I've avoided this thread because I find the whole subject depressing, but Chris Sutton, of all people, just said something on 5 Live which set me thinking and made me realise my attitude was selfish and wrong. Sutton talked of how difficult it was to talk about what is happening in America to his eight year old daughter because she had no understanding of the concept of people hating others because of the colour of their skin.

Perhaps I'm naive, but I've always believed that no one comes into this world as a ready made racist. Racists are made for all sorts of reasons, for example, spending their formative years with adult racists, indoctrination, be it voluntary or forced, or even as a counter reaction to what they regard as racist behaviour themselves -somewhere along the line, the idealism of youth gives way to cynicism and hatred.

What happened to George Floyd is just wrong, completely and utterly wrong, and I trust and hope that anyone in this thread who is critical of some of the things that have arisen from his death accept that. This single fact should be the beginning and end of any discussion about the consequences arising from what happened to him - an eight year old can see that, but some humans three, four, five, six etc times older than that have such trouble understanding that it seems and, even amongst those that do, there is still a desire to try and move the argument on to something else which only adds to the problem.

This should be something which unites all humans apart from a tiny sick and criminal minority - the fact that it doesn't only emphasises the size of the mess this world is in even without the virus.