In the past couple of weeks, the U.S. has been witness to unjustified murders and division that has been cast around. When society becomes desensitized, when a person becomes desensitized, to the violence around them, there's no chance for change.

When the latest tragedies happened, I found myself not surprised. I was not in shock. I didn't feel anything. That was what disappointed me. Seeing people get killed and not doing anything about it is something that the U.S. is quickly getting used to, when it should not. The United States should be outraged at the death that is happening every day, not peaceful protests.

Across the world, people are getting wrongfully killed on a regular basis. They don't deserve to die for something that they aren't doing, and they don't deserve to be discriminated against. This includes people of many races, religions, sexualities, and genders. Everyone is born with a blank slate, and everyone is born without prejudice. Prejudice is learned as we grow up and learned in the different environments that we live in.

In the last few years, racial tension has been rising in the country. People are divided over it, and with the upcoming election, it's bound to get even worse. Every day, people are being criticized for standing up for our rights, rights that our soldiers fought for throughout history. Let's not forget that. Each time someone says that another person is being disrespectful, each time that a peaceful protest is criticized, please remember that it could be much worse. People in other countries don't have the rights to protest as we do, and are often killed for speaking out about injustices.

As a North Carolinian, and as a Black woman, I understand why we're having the protests in Charlotte. I feel the same: we African Americans should be treated equally and not judged on our appearance, as we often are. I don't agree with the looting and rioting -- that will get us nowhere. We've been judged and murdered for most of U.S. history, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Sure, we have equality, but are we truly equal? Black men and women can be judged on their hair alone.

We acknowledge that there are problems within our communities, and we know that they need to be fixed. The thing is, what goes on in our community, to me, doesn't really have anything to do with African Americans wanting equal rights. Mentioning black on black crime is merely a defection and makes it seem like what we want doesn't matter until we fix other things first.

So, let's do a few things as a nation: have people take responsibility for their actions, stop becoming so used to the violence that we no longer are affected by it, and stop with the discrimination and prejudice and deflection. It's not helping the black community get better. It's not helping the U.S. get better.