From the words of my good friend and yoga teacher, Michael Chang, because I couldn’t have said it any better.

“I’m so tired. I’m so tired of feeling like the world’s taking one tiny step forward, two giant leaps back.

I’m exhausted reading the same headlines - different names, same stories. Police officers that escalate rather than de-escalate, officers that shoot before they ask, kill before they think. Officers with zero regard for the lives of brown and black bodies.

Mainstream media digging up any and all stories of his past. He was a thug, he deserved it. He has a criminal history, he deserved it. He should have followed orders. He should haven’t broken the law.

As if the sentence for selling CD’s is death by firing squad. As if the sentence for selling loose cigarettes is death.

Waving a toy gun.
Or loudly listening to music.
Or wearing a hoodie.

When the true crime lies with the excessive force used by those meant to protect and serve. When the true crime lies in our broken justice system that throws black and brown bodies into a privatized prison system that literally profits off their bodies.

Lies within our political inability to reform these broken institutions that lead from broken schools to broken jails. Lies with our inability to diversify media representations so that the first mental image of a black body is not that of a thug. Lies in our desensitization to this constant cycle of racial injustice — that our attention moves away as quickly as it came.

Activists organize. Protests ensue. Hashtags abound.

And of course, if there’s even an indictment, no conviction.

Rinse. Repeat.

It’s become such a predictable pattern. #AltonSterling is the 114th black man to be murdered by the police in 2016. Why does this keep happening?

Just like the Orlando shooting was an appalling reminder to the LGBT community that the progress we’ve made in the past few years does not equate to full humanity, this murder was a reminder of how unsafe this country continues to be for many black people. Is 2016 really much better than 1956?

I’m angered by the injustice, maddened by the desensitization, and saddened by the deafening silence (or worse, ignorant defensiveness) of some friends. And mostly, I’m afraid for many of my friends who have to live through every day knowing that their lives are devalued.

I remember the desolation I felt the week after Orlando — to know that even a supposed safe space for me could easily be tarnished. I can only imagine how this feeling is and has (always) been amplified for my black and brown friends.

We celebrated 4th of July a few days ago. Land of the free, home of the brave, right?

Freedom should not be conditional on the color of your skin, or the size of your wallet, or the gender of your partner.

Bravery is not willfully avoiding this issue because you can scroll past this devastating headline simply because you have the privilege to do so or because confronting the enormity of this issue makes you uncomfortable.”