Black lives matter. If I know one thing, it is that more white people, including myself, need to have that statement on our minds and our lips, at all times. While, we internalize this message, we also need to demonstrate that we know this and want everyone else to agree through our actions. We need to believe it at all times, not just when we share a post and use a hashtag.

If your first thought to my saying black lives matter is all lives matter, then I urge you to question and understand what is wrong with that response. Hopefully, if you’re not a psychopath, you believe every human life matters, and also hopefully, if you’re paying attention, you understand that that is not reflected in our society when it comes to race.

Our institutions, such as our education system and judicial system, to name a very few, do not treat black and brown lives as if they matter. And certainly, not as if they matter equally to white lives.

This fact is very clear in the very recent treatment and killing of Micah Johnson, a 25-year-old black man, who was an Army Reserve veteran. On July 7^th, Johnson shot and killed 5 police officers in Dallas, Texas. After 2 hours of negotiations with the police, a bomb operated by a robot was sent in and killed him.

On November 27^th of last year, Robert Dear, a 57-year-old white man, shot and killed 3 people and wounded 9 others, at Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Six of his victims were police officers. Police engaged in a 5 hour long standoff with Dear before he surrendered. He said he chose to do so after flipping a coin.

There are many differences between Robert Dear and Micah Johnson, but there are similarities to the crimes they committed and a very large difference in the way they were treated and stopped by the police.

Both men were thought by police to be delusional during negotiation, both had killed and injured many people, both had weapons, but Micah Johnson was black and Robert Dear is white. Micah Johnson’s life was taken after 2 hours of negotiating. Robert Dear is still alive.

This example is one among numerous, in which, black lives and white lives are valued differently by the law and by society. The law will go to great lengths to peacefully capture a white man, but will not do the same for a black man.

The shootings of two black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and the hanging of another all also occurred last week and all point to the necessity to educate ourselves and take action in order to help make the statement, “Black lives matter,” ring true in America and to stop the egregious violence against black and brown lives.

Some forms of action we can take could be finding protests and rallies in your area and showing up to stand in solidarity. If you are financially able, making donations to support those doing the work, such as the Black Lives Matter movement or the fund for assisting protesters in Baton Rouge, where Alton Sterling was murdered, who have been arrested while protesting police brutality.

Of course, there are many other forms of action one can take, but whatever you do it is very important, now, that white people who wish to be allies to and fight alongside black and brown people to incite the necessary changes that must be made in this country to act and continue to take action. After all, if all of us aren’t free, none of us are free, and at this time, it is obvious that all of us aren’t free.