Let’s say you wake up. You go about your daily routines -- eating, talking to your family, etc. You head to the local Triple S Food Mart, the same one you’ve been to countless times over the years. You attempt to sell CDs and DVDs to make a living. Some time passes, you get thirsty, so you go inside to get a drink. Upon going inside to get something to drink, you start joking around with the store owner Abdullah. You and Abdullah are cool with each other, as you two have known each other for six years. After the jokes, you head back outside to sell your CDs and DVDs. A homeless man comes up to you and asks you for some money. You don’t oblige to his requests, so he calls 911. The police arrive at the scene to confront you. Next thing you know, an officer is telling you to get on the ground. Seconds later, he tackles you to the ground. You fall on to a hood of a Camry before hitting the pavement as the officer straddles you. Another officer lands on top of you to your left chest and shoulder area. You then hear the officer straddling you scream “If you fucking move, I swear to god!” This is ironic because you can’t move as one officer is on top of you, the other has his knee over your left arm, and there is a Toyota Camry to your right obstructing any movement from that side. A literal second later, you hear something about having a gun, still unable to move, you get shot. Again. Again. Again. And again. Just like that, it’s all over. No more selling CDs. No more interaction for your with your kids, with your family. No more jokes with Abdullah. No more waking up.

Or how about this?

You supervise a school cafeteria. You remember not only the names, but the allergies of all the 530 kids that attend this school. Your colleagues and the kids you work with admire you. You even take your time helping a disabled student get to class from breakfast on the regular. Anyway, so you’re riding with your girl, and her daughter in the backseat. You get pulled over. The officer approaches your vehicle to tell you that you have a broken tail light. He questions you if you are aware of it, you respond by telling him you aren’t. The officer proceeds to tell you to put your hands in the air. You do so obliging to his requests. A moment later, while your hands are still raised in the air, the officer asks for your license and registration. Remembering what your mom told you about always complying with police officers, you do just that. As you’re reaching for your wallet, you decide to tell the officer that you have a firearm on you, all while your girl tells the officer that you are licensed to carry. Immediately you get shot. Again. Again. And again. No help is called immediately and you lie there just bleeding out. Just like that, it’s all over. No more serving kids. No more time spent with the kid you help to get to class from breakfast. No more time with your girlfriend and her daughter. No more advice from your mother. No more.

These situations are becoming far too frequent to be labeled as accidents and coincidences. With video evidence showing that these situations did not warrant a police officer to shoot, why were shots fired? We need to address these questions, and address them as soon as possible in an appropriate manner. What kind of training do these officers have to go through? Maybe the training could be a bit more strenuous in a proactive effort to further prevent these unfortunate situations? Perhaps these police academies are not as selective as they should be when hiring officers? If these questions can be answered with a logical rebuttal, then I must ask: Do we hate our black people?

I say our, because we are all in this together. Those are our neighbors. Those are our coworkers. Those are our friends. Those are our role models. Those are our brothers and sisters. Why are we being desensitized to police shootings, and police killings? This is something that should come as a shock, but lately it’s become expected. Not only have we, we as in the majority of US citizens regardless of race, religion, or age, become accustomed to hearing about these shootings, but we have all become accustomed to witnessing privilege work its wonders around the judicial system as well. For example, Brock Turner, a white 19-year old male, was found guilty of three felonies, including assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated or unconscious person. He recently received a six-month jail sentence, and could be out in as soon as three-months for “good” behavior. Cory Batey, a black 19-year old male, also raped an unconscious woman and has been found guilty of aggravated rape, as well as two counts of aggravated sexual battery. He is due to be sentenced in July, but the aggravated rape conviction has a sentence of 15-25 years in itself, which is much more than Brock Turner’s sentence of six months alone. On top of that, a former Indiana student by the name of John Enochs, a white 22-year old male, was sentenced to one day in jail in combination with probation after raping two women. In all three cases, ample evidence was provided by way of prosecution. This is not to say that Mr. Batey deserved a lesser sentence, but instead, this is to shine light on the privilege of two other very similar cases with the perpetrator being white. These trends are too frequent to be coincidental.

By allowing these things to happen with no punishment, we are conditioning people of privilege to think that they are exceptions to the law, all at the same time as we are conditioning those of poverty and those of lesser social classes to think that they are at fault for the injustice that is provided for them. This is almost identical to the way we condition others to profile Muslims and label all of them as terrorists. We perceive what we want and we only read into things that fit our personal opinions and personal narratives. There is this quote that says, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, then you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” This is not to say that there aren’t any good cops (because there most definitely are), it’s just that there aren’t enough cops good enough to step up and say that others, employed by the same institution that they are affiliated with, are wrong. I don’t believe in getting even, even in this case being defined as taking lives at the expense of opposing beliefs in a tit for tat manner, but instead, I believe in getting things right. This is why the Dallas shootings that have left five police officers dead is not only wrong, but counterproductive to everyone as well. This is the ego blended with the irrational. I believe that life is a blessing and that any death is a tragedy. Violence is not the answer to violence. Killing is not the answer to killing.

Things will never be perfect, but ignoring that things can be improved will no longer be tolerated. Effort toward acceptance is key. Rational action from unbiased knowledge is key. Persistence is key. Patience, to a certain extent, with misunderstanding is key. There are many things we can do, and I believe they can be done. If you are in charge of serving and protecting our communities, I’m asking you to please publicly speak out. Your silence is indirectly killing our communities in which we live in.

Those in power should join forces and speak out with those in our communities until we are heard. That would be the sane thing to do, because what’s going on right now, is insanity. And we all know it. Now we need to acknowledge that insanity, in hopes that the acceptance that follows will lead to action ending in a difference being made. For blacks. For whites. For cops. For our women. For our children. For everyone. For us.