In light of recent events in Charlotte, Davidson College had a peaceful protest. Students, faculty, community members were asked to participate; we were supposed to wear black to show support for the lives that have been claimed in neighborhoods, on familiar streets all across the United States.

I knew I wanted to partake. Conveniently, I didn't have a class, but even if I had, I would have gone. In fact, my only concern was that it took a week to get organized. This, the issue of black people being the recipients of police brutality, is a huge problem that confronts not just the United States, but the whole world. Why? Because people are cruel regardless of borders. This universal cruelness was, ironically, one of the pillars behind my lack of dedication to the Black Lives Matter campaign.

My first problem was that Black Lives Matter was too specific. Sure, I want race relations to improve. Only an idiot would say that things are fine the way they are and that Whites and Blacks, Asians and Latinos, are all treated equally fairly. But at the same time, LGBTQ+ people face harassment wherever they go. Women don't receive equal wages. Women are raped and the offenders serve but three months in jail. The world isn't fair. This was my first snag: I see too many problems in the world that have equal value in my mind.

Problem number two resided in the fact that I looked deeper into problems than was necessarily required. On a more basic level, yes, of course, I believe that people with more melanin, with a darker skin tone, deserve an equal place in this world. But, as my dad once told me, "The more strongly I believe in something, the more I doubt it." That's the case here. It can't be so simple that the cops are bad and black people are good. I don't deny that they, the black community, are abused, but I think that some cops are, as well. Just as there are scumbag cops, so are their scumbag blacks. Sure, the system is set against them, but pigment doesn't determine goodness, as I said earlier. This means there are evil whites, blacks, all colors along the spectrum. So this was my second reservation: it's too easy to say all black lives matter when it is really hard to sympathize wish rapists and murderers who are no different than their white counterparts.

At the protest, I walked up and down Main St with 500 odd students and faculty. I chanted "Black Lives Matter." I repeated over and over, "No Justice, No peace. No Racist Police."

After we marched around, we gathered around the flagpole and students spoke. They spoke about how they were scared, how their mothers wouldn't let them drive their cars to college because they were afraid of their child being pulled over and killed. How every day they struggle with the notion that regardless of how high a status they achieve, they will always be targeted by the police and the establishment. The most poignant part to me, however, was when they spoke about those who weren't black. Those who have white privilege. Those who look like me.

While I might look like the most uppity, entitled rich person, I struggle against this label. Do I admit that it is a good thing to not have to worry about the cops pulling me over because of my skin tone? Sure. Who wouldn't want that? But what frustrates me without fail is when classmates don't understand that our white life is easy. The speakers at the rally addressed this issue. One girl specifically said that white tears, nine times out of ten, don't mean the same as black tears. I should be thankful that I don't have to worry about my body in the way they do, but that's not my reaction. Instead, I feel sorrow. I am humbled by the grief less than 10% of my student body faces. I am angered when people say that Davidson is such a white school. If I'm supposed to be receiving a liberal arts education, shouldn't that mean that the opinions in classrooms be different? Shouldn't that mean that I and my classmates learn how to interact with people that are different than us, try to understand their viewpoint, how all of us make up this world?

I stand with Black Lives Matter because their opinion matters, and to see people try to shut down that beauty, that intelligence, is awful. It's frightening. How could you want them off campus, a place that ought to be the safest? A community like Davidson is supposed to be about learning. How can you do that if everyone is the same person? That's not learning, that's rote memorization. I stand with Black Lives Matter because with all the negativity I've been hearing, it's making me question my choice of university. I wish I had chosen somewhere more diverse, somewhere I could attend more protests like the one today. Because we aren't doing enough here. We need to show everyone that black lives are important, that they are unique and should be cherished, and they need to stop being gunned down by ignorance.