This is an account of some of the most chaotic and polarizing protests in American history, told by a man who was in the middle of the mayhem-from the George Floyd protests/riots during the summer of 2020 through January 6th, 2021. In RIOT DIET, Richie McGinniss leads a Washington, DC-based news team to Black Lives Matter demonstrations around the country. Armed with nothing but a cell phone, a hockey helmet, a gas mask, cans of alcohol, and smokes, McGinniss sets forth on a simple but dangerous mission: Use the power of internet video to place viewers directly among the demonstrators and police.
As the team travels through empty airports during the height of the "postpandemaliptic" world, the ragtag Riot Squad dons "black bloc" to embed in the power vacuums that inevitably descend into chaos. Whether the protests are fiery or mostly peaceful, Richie and his team relay raw video-not biased commentary-to the viewers locked down at home. These riot reporters are not your run-of-the-mill modern-day journalists. This book goes deeper than the surface-level whataboutism of the times. With illustrations and hundreds of photos, the reader will have no shortage of content to dive into with this stranger-than-fiction true story.
Juggling the role of homicide witness, video news director, riot surfer, and citizen, McGinniss is simultaneously sprayed, beaten, and maligned for the sake of showing the public the truth behind the politicized corporate narratives. This is the tragically poetic tale of how the younger generation can build something new, even in the wake of widely perceived institutional doom.
According to Editorial Advisor Anthony Swofford, author of the critically acclaimed book-turned blockbuster movie Jarhead, "It's the 'Jarhead' of the Riots!"
THIS VERSION IS BLACK AND WHITE.