“People are setting fires to get rid of whomever they dislike from personal enemies to anyone who looks or sounds foreign or racially different. People are setting fires because they’re frustrated, angry, hopeless. They have no power to improve their lives, but they have the power to make others even more miserable. And the only way to prove to yourself that you have power is to use it.”

“You’re supposed to be dirty now. If you’re clean, you make a target of yourself. People think you’re showing off, trying to be better than they are. Among the younger kids, being clean is a great way to start a fight.”

“I have watched education become more a privilege of the rich than the basic necessity that it must be if civilized society is to survive. I have watched as convenience, profit, and inertia excused greater and more dangerous environmental degradation. I have watched poverty, hunger, and disease become inevitable for more and more people. “

Discrimination, racism, and xenophobia all remain relevant in our current day. History evidently repeats itself overtime, as these old issues still persist, just in new ways. Xenophobia towards Asians (particularly Chinese people) ramped up again during the start of COVID-19, where increased harassment or avoidance began. Police brutality still lingers heavily, and this is a root from racial discrimination or underlying prejudices, as well as a faulty justice system whose roots stem from racism.

This applies to all private belongings and appearances. Nicer cars are infamous for being stolen, while someone else's already broken down car is unlikely to be taken. Appearances matters for survival, or at least to trick others into thinking you're not worth their effort or time. It is worth mentioning that places or belongings with lack of security or resources may also be targets. Their lack of resources may boil down to not having enough income or not being supported by other groups that have more than them. It's an instance of inequality that affects both perception of others, and capability or performance.

Corporation and capitalistic focus on making profit off of resources, even if resources retrieval or creation of resources is a means of environmental degradation: eg. plastics and oils– people can individually help fight against this, but the true power of change would come from the corps, who currently still do nothing about it. Those in the lower class can’t do anything significant (or economically) to stop environmental degradation when society only uses it for profit.