Over the course of these past two weeks, we can now add 13 tally marks to the number of people who have been attacked for racial reasons. That's 13 too many.

If you are not aware, there was a man killed in St. Anthony, Minnesota during a traffic stop. Philando Castile, a 32-year old black male, was pulled over for a busted taillight. He is reported to have been a licensed gun owner who kept a gun in his car. When the officer on the scene, Jeronimo Yanez, asked Castile for his license and registration, Castile verbally told Yanez that he had a gun and that it was in the same location as one of those items, so he would have to reach into the same compartment to retrieve the item the officer needed. In a panic, Officer Yanez shot Castile when he reached into the compartment to retrieve the documentation. Castile was later pronounced dead. In response to this killing, in Dallas, a man named Micah Xavier Johnson, a 25-year old, black, ex-military man shot and killed five police officers and wounded seven other individuals (two of which are not police). This was in response to the event described above, and Johnson is known to have said that he wanted to kill white people, "especially white officers." For more information on these stories, you can visit this link for the shooting of Philando Castile, and you can visit this link for more information on the Dallas police shooting.

Now, these incidents breed a number of issues. Do I believe Officer Yanez saw a black man and wanted to kill him based on that premise? No. Do I believe Castile was killed because he was black? Absolutely. Now, the great majority of people who are polar on either side of this debate would look at those two statements and say they contradict, but I'd like to elaborate on how they definitely do not.

I'd like to go ahead and point out the elephant in the (metaphorical) room: racism DOES still exist. Now, while I do believe there are a small number of people of all races who genuinely hate other races, I do not believe that racism takes that form, by and large. However, racism is a broad spectrum of things, not just blatant hate. Using the literary definition provided by Oxford Dictionary, we can deduce several different forms of racism. Oxford Dictionary says racism is "[p]rejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior." Usually, we work on the premise of the last two items that Oxford says racism is. When most people think of racism, they think of either people blatantly attacking people of other races (antagonism), or in the case of a more scholarly source, they might focus on the structural disadvantages that minorities face (discrimination). But what about that first item: prejudice?

Prejudice is simply a "pre-judgment" about someone or something based on facts that one believes they know from stereotypes. To hold a prejudice against someone based on race would, in fact, then classify as racism. This form of racism is the one I'd like to center in on for now since it seems to be what's fueling these issues we're dealing with in America today.

In the case of Castile and Officer Yanez, if you watch the video, you can HEAR the fear in Officer Yanez's voice. I believe that he acted irrationally out of an irrational fear: he feared that Castile would harm him. Now, there is nothing that can be found on Castile that would make one think that he was a dangerous person, so why would Officer Yanez be afraid of him? That's a very simple question to answer: racial bias. We can thank our media for this one. The media paints a disproportional picture of our black brothers and sisters, and it has for quite some time now. In fictional media, basically all portrayls of blacks make them out to be either poor, vicious, or both. In the news, we see a disproportional picture of blacks who are on welfare or are committing crimes (actually, there is a roughly equivalent amount of white people on welfare as blacks, which is a problem in and of itself, but I'll discuss that another time). This is not to say that these things or scenarios DON'T happen, but the media knows when to whitewash and when to not, and they've played us for fools for quite some time. This constructed stereotype of blacks, if it were true, would leave no person who can reason unafraid of blacks, but that's the thing: it couldn't be further from the truth if it tried hard! Unfortunately, people innately believe stereotypes; according to sociological theories, people gravitate to them because they make daily life "predictable." So, I certainly believe Officer Yanez was afraid he would be hurt by Castile, but that fear is a form of programmed racism. It's something that we have to actually push ourselves to think past, because it's nothing more than a stereotype.

Now, I haven't really addressed the Dallas shooting, but it certainly merits discussion as well. Let's break this down the same kind of way that I've broken down the other issue. Shootings based on police brutality (intentional or like the one discussed above) are the main stories that are put out there about our police forces. Do I believe there is a problem that needs correction there? Certainly. Do I believe these stories are an accurate representation of all of our people in uniform? Not even close.

Now, again, from a sociological perspective, when a crime is committed, people usually want retribution for the action taken. This principle is what drove Johnson to do what he did, but what in the world made him choose his targets the way he did? It's literally the same thing as before: racial bias. While there is a little bit more bias in this case than simply racial (he was after officers, especially), he certainly was operating under the media portrayal of our white police forces. We only ever hear about police, in general, when they've messed up, so for someone following those stories, it wouldn't be hard to get a bad taste for the police. Because the great majority of police officers are white, it's automatically assumed that those things go hand in hand (which, they don't). That's just an effect of population ratios; in basically ALL situations, we should see more white people, simply because there are more white people. Just because something is white-dominant, doesn't mean it's a "white thing," it just means that specific item is falling victim to population ratios. I would expect this same thing in countries where whites are not the majority.

This being said, Johnson was a toxic mixture of all of those things. He was upset over the events that occurred (rightfully so), but took a horrible and inexcusable path to counter said events.

Both events are tragic, and in both cases, the responsible parties deserve punishment. Johnson has already received his, and I hope that Officer Yanez receives punishment as well.

Now, I have a small call-to-action for everyone after going through both of these events. I would ask that people not take sides on this issue. If you are hurt because the black community has been attacked, then I sympathize with you, but we should not pursue a movement AGAINST our police forces. We should look for a solution that prepares officers for less-than-desirable situations and teaches them to know when one is at hand and when one is not (because this was not a horrible situation at all until he pulled the trigger). On the flipside of the same coin, if you are hurt because our police forces have been attacked, then I too sympathize with you, but labeling an entire population as "delinquents" and pushing for them to all change is not the solution, it actually will just perpetuate the problem. We need to show more positivity towards our police forces, and not just when things like these happen. We need to have conversations of inclusivity and, whether you all like it or not, about racism. Because if we can stop these events before they happen, that would be the best thing we could do for our police.

This brings me to the issue of #BlackLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter. If you only use #AllLivesMatter when #BlackLivesMatter flares up, you're missing the point entirely, and you're honestly not helping. The #BlackLivesMatter movement arises during moments where black lives are lost simply because they are black. I've explained to you how this is true, so trying to drown out their cries is one of the most insensitive things you could do. Yes, all lives SHOULD matter, but with the way things are going, it's not looking like all of them do. You can use #AllLivesMatter when blacks and police aren't being killed just for who they are, so I expect to see the internet full of that hashtag when we can actually find a way to peacefully end this struggle, okay?

A final note for everyone: we will not end this cycle of hate with more hate. Blameshifting and trying to make the other party look bad only moves the cycle on. With every shooting of a minority by police based on racial bias, minorities hate police that much more. That spawns an unfounded retaliation which causes those who side with the police to stereotype and foster the racial bias for these people, and the cycle continues.

It's about time we all decide to love each other, rather than allow this nonsense to continue.