"An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the time." - Nina Simone

509. According to The Washington Post, 509 people have been killed by police so far in 2016. The craziest part about this is that it is only July, which means that we have just made it past the halfway mark of this year, and already 509 lives have been taken by police!

While having a conversation about the unlawful death of Alton Sterling with a friend of mine, one of her statements was that if we as Blacks complied when pulled over or even stopped by a cop that things could in turn be better for us. As I woke up the following morning and turned on the news, I then saw that Philando Castile, yet another one of our people, was killed by police. Now according to said friend, "compliance" is what needed to happen, but in several cases, and especially this one, the person killed complied with the officer.

At this point parents, sisters, wives, daughters, cousins, etc. are fearful that one day we will wake up and it will be our own family member's name attached to the hashtag. That there will not be any justice because the police decided that he was "afraid" for whatever reason of another Black male. Now I know for a fact that not every officer is corrupt and not every officer would claim to be fearful of someone in compliance; however, there's been a lot of people dying at the hands of officers who took an oath to protect and serve.

So to our African American people, I would like to say, "You matter!" Yes, everyone's outraged, and yes, this makes no sense whatsoever. And yes, something needs to be done. According to Twitter, @Issarae has started a scholarship fund for Alton Sterling's children. Now, granted, it will not bring their father back, but it will at least secure their future education. I believe this is a peaceful way of helping the family, providing something in their time of need, and people from all over have already contributed to this fund. Who knows what his children will grow up to be, and who knows what others will band together and do for the family of Philando Castile. This is just the beginning of our African American cultures outrage and willingness to do something to stop the senselessness.

Who knows what else will be done to fix the struggle.