There's been a buzz in racial tension as of late; watch the news for longer than two minutes and you will understand what I'm talking about. Before I begin, let me state that my deepest sympathies go out to the Dallas Police Department, while I disagree with many of the laws police are required to enforce, the fact is that these brave men and women in blue risk their lives to ensure safety in our communities.

With that said, I ardently believe #blacklivesmatter and that we need to seriously reevaluate and address the underlying subconscious bias against African Americans that seems to lurk in many police departments. While there are many instances where I feel the media overplays the act of race in police violence, the fact is there is a disproportionate amount of black people in prison, a disproportionate amount of black people get pulled over, and the way they are treated when pulled over/stopped is usually horrendous when compared with their white counterparts. The video below illustrates this last point.

In response to the Black Lives Matter movement, which is an extremely active group promoting racial awareness and equality albeit sometimes over-the-top and counterproductive, there has been a backlash coming in the form of #AllLivesMatter. This is roughly equivalent to the #notallmen response to feminists raising awareness of sexual assault. I feel these responses are the epitome of well intentioned idiocy.

Of course all lives matter, but that's not the point, you malnourished walnut. Think of it like this: if one house in a subdivision is on fire, do you call the fire department and have them hose down every house in the subdivision to make it equal for all the other houses? Or do you just need help for the one burning house? Black people are the burning house at the moment, and their lives should matter to us.

Something as simple as requiring officers to wear cameras would help substantially. So the next time you have a knee jerk reaction people who are different from you screaming loudly, maybe take the time to listen to what they are saying before plugging your ears.