This Viral Tweet Points Out the Hypocrisy of a Black Man Being Killed By Police

In response to Tuesday's police shooting and killing of Alton Sterling, a black man who was selling CDs in Baton Rouge, LA, the public has taken to Twitter to express their outrage. One tweet in particular, however, is going viral for exposing the larger issues at hand: race, gun control, and hypocrisy.

Twitter user Jenni, who's the electoral communications program director at ColorOfChange, highlighted a double standard in her post. Why is it that gun possession is encouraged by pro-gun advocates in light of mass shootings such as that in Orlando, FL, but having a gun in defense is used to justify the shooting of Sterling? When a black man has a firearm, reasoning seems to change. Jenni's tweet already has nearly 5,000 favorites and 6,500 retweets at the time of writing.

Additional tweets are receiving attention for calling out racism surrounding the Sterling incident, including the media's portrayal of Sterling, which contrasts that of former Stanford student Brock Turner, who was charged for sexual assault earlier this year.

As you can see, Sterling is shown as a criminal while Turner is shown smiling in a student photo.

See even more reactions to Sterling's death here.