How do you help fix the problem of racism? I’ve been speaking up about it since I was a teenager. It maybe has pressed some of my family and friends to question their overt racism, but I don’t know that I’ve been able to change them. Over time, they have learned that if they speak racist stuff, I will challenge them, and I will ostracize them if they continue. I will not be in the same room with them. I will not take part in what they take part in. And I will let them know why.

And yet, some of them choose to continue in their racist beliefs. And they get butthurt because I call them on it.

I feel it is important to speak out about it in social media. I feel it is important to write to politicians, chiefs of police in my area, to attend occasional public meetings and speak out and be seen as a white person who is against the police profiling, and acting on their racist attitudes. The stories of what those police do are terrible.

When I adopted my son from Korea, the agency we worked with told us to introduce son to the police, and “let them see you with him often, so that they will know he is protected by a white person.” I did so, but I’ve always known that the rest of the blacks, Hispanics, and Asians in the US don’t have the advantage of a white person protecting them.

But I have to ask – why should that be necessary? Why, in the 21st century, are some people, including some police still acting as thought the Civil War was about to start? Why have we allowed racists to hold office, and to be in position of authority, such as serve in the police?

The police are not all law abiding. I know this from my own family’s experiences. We had a crooked cop in the family, and we all suffered from it in one way or another. We also had a lot of cops in the family who were not crooked, who acted in an ethical and legal manner all their careers. So I know the difference, and I know that not all cops are law abiding  because I read the news and see reports of policemen arrested for every kind of crime imaginable. And yes, those are the exceptions. But too often the reaction within police forces is to look the other way and allow it. Just as security guards often turn out to be the inside man in robberies and theft, some police create problems instead of stopping problems. They have joined for the power, and because they can get away with abuse of the power. That includes racism and the ability to persecute those they perceive as weak. They perceive blacks and hispanics as weak because their own leaders and fellow police let them get away with racial profiling, with violence against them, and with outright illegal behavior. It is the power and ability to exercise power against someone who can’t lash out at them in return.

If you want to help end this continuation of racism, and persecution of blacks by police, speak out. Stand up. Let it be known that you won’t support police who break the law. Let your local and national politicians know you will not stand for it, and you will campaign against them if they support that kind of behavior.

This is not blacks against the police. It is some police acting against blacks, and that puts us all in danger, it demeans all of us because it fractures our society, it breaks the law, and as with all criminals, it creates fear. It is time to stop the violence. It is time to stop racism.