Donald Trump’s distance from receiving the Republican presidential nomination is growing shorter, and with it, so is my patience. My opinion is that no matter one’s party affiliation, Trump does not represent American values or exhibit respect for others the way that a president should. Either way, though, the negative feelings I have about Trump’s potential presidency wouldn’t cause me to disturb the peace, at least not physically.

I just feel that’s not the best way for me to express my sentiments. I’ve never attended an anti-Trump protest, but I would definitely do so peacefully if given the chance. However, various groups of anti-Trump protesters have made the decision recently to be less peaceful and more intrusive than the typical picket-sign-holding activist.

Trump protesters have received endless media attention during the campaign. This isn’t because they’re all being violent, but because they’ve been increasingly present. More than ever, groups of people who oppose Trump have been actively protesting at Trump rally venues while the actual rally is going on. They’re certainly outspoken; at a recent Orlando, FL rally, Trump had to say, “Can the protesters stop for a couple of seconds so we can talk?” Many of them are associated with the Black Lives Matter movement as well, and this has caused heightened racial tensions at the rallies.

In general, the racial divide when it comes to Trump supporters and protesters is clear: Many of the protesters are people of color, and most of Trump’s supporters are white. There have been several altercations between protesters of color and white Trump supporters, such as one encounter in which a young black woman protesting—not doing anything except standing and holding an anti-Trump sign—and was shoved around by white men and had racial slurs yelled at her.

A March Trump rally in Chicago was canceled because there were so many protesters that fights broke out between supporters and protesters. Another was interrupted by a young protester of color yelling “Bigot!” at Trump repeatedly, being escorted out and subsequently being punched in the face by a Trump supporter who said the young man was “not acting American” and that he didn’t regret hitting him.

There are two reactions to this type of behavior: One side would say that the person yelling “bigot” was right to have been escorted away, and that maybe he shouldn’t have been acting that way in the first place or he wouldn’t have been punched. The other side would say that while the protester was being disruptive, he was right to call Trump out in such a matter. Personally, I think we should look to the root of the problem.

Consider this: The guy calling Trump a bigot didn’t do so just because he wanted to disrupt the rally. He did so because he felt he needed to be heard. Considering this protester was a man of color, I’m sure he had even more reason than I to think that Trump is a bigot, considering Trump’s growing number of racist statements. Despite the opinion of many that these types of protesters just want to make noise, disruptive protesters are actually misguidedly attempting to set aflame the injustice they feel is present. They’re not trying to bring hatred or fear; in their way, they’re trying to eradicate it, not caring about how they come across to Trump and his supporters.

Still, very few people have been able to see these intentions behind these protesters’ actions. Instead, they’d rather focus on the violent actions instead of the reason that there are groups of people so violently against Trump. When a group of people feels oppressed—take the Civil Rights era, for example—they will fight back in some way, and they’re more effective when someone helps lead and organize them (which is why figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. are so important). But when people protesting injustice have all this anger and just don’t know what to do with it, and no one in power will listen to them, they go out and yell and trespass because disruption will at least give them a voice. That doesn’t mean that any of the protesters’ opinions are unjustified; it just means their negative feelings towards Trump are manifesting in a way that Trump and his supporters can, unfortunately, use against them.

In a recent Tweet about the large amounts of Trump protesters at the GOP convention in California, he called them “thugs and criminals” that should be dealt with by law enforcement. Now, the use of the word “thugs” indicates that they’re black—a large group of the protesters were part of the Black Lives Matter movement—considering the racially charged way that the word is used in the media. I’ve never, ever heard someone call a white person a “thug”. In general, the word “thug” has an extremely negative connotation, and it’s one of the words that was frequently used to describe the rioters in Ferguson during controversy over police brutality.

I’ve heard not only Trump but many others, even those who do not support Trump, describe Trump’s disruptive protesters this way, as though disruptive protesting is the worst thing anyone could possibly be doing surrounding the election. I agree that their actions are disrespectful, but there is no need to demonize them. They’re political activists, groups of whom occasionally go too far. This exists in any movement, so naturally it will exist during the campaign of the most controversial presidential candidate there’s ever been.

In short, I know that some—and only some—of these protesters are not behaving respectfully. Many of them are trespassing, damaging property, and have even assaulted others on occasion. I think, though, that rather than being quick to demonize them, we as a society should examine why this kind of anger is being incited. Don’t get me wrong; I think we should encourage protesters to protest peacefully, as the First Amendment states, rather than violently. However, if groups of citizens are getting so angry at the country as a whole just because of Trump’s rise in popularity, and if the idea of Trump is constantly reminding them of greater issues such as racism and xenophobia, that says a lot about the nature of Trump’s political campaign.