Waking up is hard. It is. With the alarm clock blaring in your ear, sunlight pouring into your window, it is difficult to toss off our warm, comfortable blankets and stand up.

In the wake of countless black lives lost— Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Cornelius Brown — two more black men, Alton B. Sterling and Philando Castile, were killed by police officers this past week. If you are looking for an article about police brutality, this is not for you. If you are looking for an article detailing these events, this is not for you. If you are white (ally or not), keep reading.

With every passing murder, every injustice, social media activism erupts. Countless articles cover the actual footage of the events while others plea for the violence to end. But as I scroll through my Facebook and Twitter feeds, something seems off. Besides a select few white people, the only people posting about these atrocities are my friends of color, hurting and heartbroken.

I see a police officer shoot Alton Sterling next to a video posted on how to make eight difference types of grilled cheese. Where are the white voices condemning the shootings, the senseless killings? Where are the white voices speaking out against these injustices? And if there are an influx of white allies, why now? Why not before the hundreds of other murders?

Now before I get too far, I believe it is important to point out that white voices cannot empathize. We, as white people, have never faced mass discrimination or systemic racism and we have never been asked to be accountable for the actions of our entire race. It is extremely important to realize three things: 1) We cannot possibly know what it feels like to be racially profiled or systematically killed for the color of our skin; 2) The fact that our race has never dealt with the same atrocities placed upon POC in our nation places us in a position of extreme privilege; and 3) We must use this privilege to correct our society's mistreatment of people of color.

It should not take a tragedy for the white population to mobilize. It should not take a tragedy for the white population to start caring about issues that are important to communities of color. Too often, I see that my white friends do not speak out against the injustices that POC face because they prefer to "test the water" of the Black community before elaborating or giving their condolences. I find extreme fault with this method. While it is important to respect the grievances of a community, it is imperative that the white population realize that we also have to fight against racism. We also have to fight against discrimination. We also have to fight against prejudice. It is not up to the Black community to fight our society's systems alone. Is their fight different from ours? Yes. Does this mean we should not be taking a stand against the powers of racism in our society? Absolutely not.

Now is the time for me to bring up one vital word: education. Education is the reason I find fault in a white person waiting to see the reactions of the Black community. It is not the responsibility of a person of color to educate the white community. It is not up to a person of color to "fill us in" on the atrocities. The white community needs to do a better job of educating ourselves, not relying on POC to explain why it is heartbreaking that police have killed over 1,000 black men in the past year or why microaggressions are demeaning, hurtful and still extremely prevalent.

For too long now, we have not been accepting responsibility for our culture, our community and our country. If you are a white person reading this right now and you believe that it does not pertain to you or that the sorrows of the black community are “not your problem,” then you are a part of the problem.

Let us change gears for a moment and talk about being woke. As Urban Dictionary describes, "Being Woke means being aware… Knowing what is going on in the community." Now before you write this off as another millennial attempting to blindly incorporate our jargon into arguments, please bear with me for just one moment. If being woke means being aware of what is going on, good and bad, in a community and -- dare I say -- society, then I venture to say that white people have been using POC as alarm clocks for too long. Being woken up from the deep sleep of ignorance is painful. Being thrust into a world that demands attention to injustice, thoughtfulness of action and mindfulness of the other can be difficult at first. Because our warm blankets of privilege have allowed us to remain undisturbed by systematic racism, waking up and opening our eyes to the disturbing happenings in communities of color can be shocking at first. But think for one moment that they have been awake their entire lives. POC have been followed in gas stations for no reason other than the color of their skin; they have been the forefront of racist jokes and microaggressions. They have been awake and aware of what is happening in our society for a long time. They needed no alarm clock. The world angrily shouted in their face, sometimes denying their right to life as quickly as a bullet out of a gun.

We as white people need to take responsibility for our actions and this society. We need to educate ourselves as well as each other. We need to wake up, open our eyes and stand up to the injustices that, with our privilege, we can help remedy. People of color should not be our alarm clocks; it is time to splash our faces with consciousness, dress ourselves in education and stand up for what is right.