I'm blown away at how large of a racial divide we still have in this country. We have come a long way from enslaving each other, but we still have a long and hard journey toward true racial equality. It honestly makes my head hurt when I think about the injustice that my racially diverse friends go through on a daily basis...injustices I will never experience.

With that, I find what is called White Guilt. I can't control the things that do and do not happen to me because of the color for my skin, but it does kill me that something so simple as me being white and a friend being black gives us completely different life experiences in the United States of America.

Full disclosure before I keep writing...this is not an anti-white bash. This is not an "all cops are crooks" piece, because a lot of the police in this country are amazing. This is not an "I'm a 21-year-old with a solution" scenario. This is a cry for us to realize that we have a problem and can take small steps that can help mend that problem.

If we have learned anything in the past few days in the United States, it is that this country is hurting. Police shooting suspects, people shooting police and everyone's varied opinions in between, it almost feels like America is tearing at the seams.

I think in this hyper-connected social world that we live in, we forget that the people who are killed in this situations die. They're live's on earth are over. They are more than just the name on the news story, they are human beings who leave behind family and friends...and that is so sad.

The only thing that is more sad is that it creates an even bigger gap in the divide. The canyon that is race relations in our country seems to turn into an ocean after the events that have taken place in Baton Rogue, St. Paul and Dallas.

So that is my un-writer likely long intro, but with that being said. My condolences go out to the family and friends of anyone who has lost a love one due to this ever present issue in this country.

Fixing the racial divide in the United States is difficult, but admitting that it exists is not. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not.

As a twenty-something white male...

I don't get woken up by gunshots.

I have never been profiled in a store.

People never assume I'm good at math.

People have never been surprised at how "articulate" I am.

I've never been pulled over for going three over the limit.

The United States is awful at diversity. The reason we are so bad at diversity is because we love our comfort zones. Everyone loves to be comfortable and it is the thing that most people seek in life. Unfortunately, comfort comes with a lot of problems.

Diversity is so much more than just race, it is a difference in general. Diversity is embracing our differences instead of fighting those who are different. We aren't scared of other races simply because they are a different race (If that is the case, that is a problem and I feel sorry for you), we are scared because it is different than what we are or what we are comfortable with. We are scared of leaving our comfort zone. This applies to all humans on this earth.

We are all so heavily rooted in our comfort zones that anytime terrible news, like the shooting of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and the shootings in Dallas, arises we can get into a shell-like state that makes us forget that these people are human beings and more than just hashtags on our Twitter and Facebook feeds.

These are moments that can shake our comfort zone and help us grow, or we can hide away and let injustice win. The first option takes legitimate work and that's why we really don't see true changes every time another person is killed and it makes national headlines.

We become so heartless that we can't even mourn a loss of life without trying to make a political or moral gain.

Politics won't change the heart of humans, in fact, it seems to do the opposite.

This isn't just some hippy manifesto, but loving our neighbor is the only way that this will be fixed. Instead of running to FOX News or NBC to see what each side is telling us what we should think, we should just be sad and work towards change of our own hearts by thinking for ourselves.

It is an easy time to be a white man in America and it is difficult being anything else and we just all need to admit that. All 318.9 Million people in the U.S. need to work together to change. We need to ignore what we have been told our whole lives. We need to work on loving our neighbor and realizing that there is a problem.

I have it easy, my friends do not. I can continue to take that easy road, or I can step out of my comfort zone and interact with people in my community who are different than me. It is not our governments job to fix the minds of the people of the United States. We need to do this. It starts at the individual level and ends at the individual level. We need to reach out to those around us and tell them we care. We need to act as if our neighbor is our family member. This is easier said than done.

Lastly, we need to pray. We need to cry out to God and not tell him to fix this, but to tell him to teach us. Ask for the Lord who created us to show us him more and more each day, even in this heartbreak and racial schism in America. The Lord allows us to lament, but also is willing to show us what true and marvelous love is. Without love, this world will just continue to crumble.

I'm white and I feel terrible for how my black friends must be feeling at a time like this, but I'm hoping that our country can figure this out so my children don't need to feel the guilt I feel and my friend's children don't need to feel the fear that they do.