In Melbourne on Saturday night a young woman lost her life after being stabbed during an altercation at a teenage party. The next day in Oakland, California, a man took out a knife on the train and stabbed two sisters, killing one. Laa Chol, 19, and Nia Wilson, 18, did have one thing in common, aside from being teens with their whole lives ahead of them: the colour of their skin.

Two dead women an ocean apart, but their deaths, these horrific tragedies, are linked by the times that we live in. This is 2018. Ugly, hyper-partisan, violent and opportunistic.