Lately, all I have seen on my social media is Black Lives Matter versus Blue Lives Matter. It’s a topic that has ignited heated debates and unfortunately, unnecessary loss of lives. What I think people are failing to realize, though, is that Black Lives Matter is not meant to be a war on cops. I repeat, it is not a war against cops.

We as a nation, with a significant amount of help from the media, I might add, have created this divide and the assumption that if you’re pro #blacklivesmatter, then you must be anti-police. That is simply not the case. You can respect the duties and the jobs police do while also standing up for social injustices and civil rights.

The whole Black Lives Matter movement started to bring awareness to police brutality and the flaws within our justice system that allow police to not be held accountable for the misuse of excessive force, specifically the killing of unarmed black men. One of the biggest misconceptions is that this movement is basically a war on cops.

I think I can speak for the black community when I say that we know that all cops are not bad. The majority of them are upstanding citizens who hold their badge to the highest regards and know what it truly means to be a policeman—to protect and serve others. When we say Black Lives Matter, we’re not saying every other race doesn’t. What we’re saying is that black lives matter, too.

To respond to #blacklivesmatter with #alllivesmatter or #bluelivesmatter is, in my opinion, disrespectful and very condescending. It’s the same as me walking into St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and saying, “Yo, your hospital is bogus and your charity sucks, because all cancer is important, not just childhood cancer.” We all know that that’s absurd, so why is it so hard to understand this concept? When people say #bluelivesmatter, we know they don’t mean that people who aren’t policemen, such as firefighters or doctors, don’t matter. They’re just saying that they feel like police have been unfairly treated by a group of people. Duh, what the hell do you think we’ve been trying to say this whole time with #blacklivesmatter?

If you understand the concept that #bluelivesmatter doesn’t mean other lives don’t matter, then you understand that #blacklivesmatter doesn’t mean that the lives of policeman don’t. You’re just choosing to be a douche about it.

Unfortunately, due to recent events, the tension between Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter has only been heightened. What happened in Dallas and Baton Rouge should not be a reflection of the Black Lives Matter movement, just the same way that the actions of a few bad cops should not reflect the character and perception of all cops. Two morons who just happened to be black decided to take justice into their own hands and it resulted in tragic, senseless acts. Those murderers do not represent the black community, nor do they represent Black Lives Matter.

Nonetheless, black people, we need to start doing better as a community and stop giving the media, racists, bigots and others ammunition against us. What those two men did in Dallas and Baton Rouge did not help our cause, but only set us back further from our destination. Remember that we can protest, but we need to do it peacefully. Remember that your words will have a much greater effect than your weapons. Come on now, after all these years of oppression, I know we have become smarter than this. Use your heads and let your hearts guide you, but not control you. Meaning, let the anger and sadness you feel about these social injustices inspire you to do better and want to make a change, but don’t let it overpower you and lead you to making rash, unintelligent decisions.

As a black woman, I know that police do tend to target African Americans more than other races. This isn’t an assumption and there are countless facts and statistics to support that claim. However, I firmly believe that all policemen are not bad. We should be supporting each other. We should not be choosing sides; we should be working together to find better solutions.