I am filled with pride and hope for this country as I watch the protests led by young African-Americans in New York City, San Francisco, and elsewhere. The moral courage displayed is astounding; to stand so visibly against the society that has oppressed your people for centuries takes great courage and great certainty, a conviction that most white Americans cannot muster. Many white Americans seem not even to be aware of the dehumanization inherent in being black in America–the daily marginalization, the micro-aggressions that pile up, the fear for safety and the safety of loved ones that comes with being #AliveWhileBlack in America. How acute this fear and desperation must be in the wake of the non-indictment of Officers Darren Wilson and Daniel Pantaleo.

It would have been very easy to get an indictment in both cases. The grand jury system is suspect; why not skip the indictment process and send cases straight to trial? Cost? What is the cost of one human life? What is the cost of thousands? What is the cost of an ethnic race of people? America needs to reckon with that. America needs to stop treating black lives as disposable lives.

Americans need to work together to advance the American project. That is what democracy is about. That we even have a juxtaposition of Christmas-tree privilege and people marching for the lives of innocents should give us more than a brief pause; it should cause serious national soul-searching. Far too many consider it a disruption of business as usual.

Not to say that we are not searching in recent days. We are, and the ones searching most of all are black, especially black youth. And they are acting. And I love them so much for it.

“This is not just a black problem. This is your problem!” –Amber Rose, Tufts University Organizer

But white people in America need to do more. White people in America need to stop being complacent and become accountable to their history, which, by the way, is very fucking violent. No more excuses about, “that was all a long time ago.” No more pointing to Affirmative Action and talking about how whites are getting passed over for jobs or college (and certainly don’t reference The Bell Curve when you make your specious argument). People are being murdered and the murderers are not being held accountable. Empathize with your fellow Americans. Have some compassion.

Violence and repression, subjugation of entire communities of color, is happening now and will continue to happen. What are we going to do about it? What does it say about us, white people, that we won’t — apparently collectively cannot — honestly confront our history?

Black and brown and other non-white-looking people know about racial profiling and the miscarriage of justice first hand. Too many white people remain ignorant, often willfully so. I say this as a white person, from my experiences with other white people, my friends and family. That I have to go out of my way to learn about Operation Pipeline (read The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, please) and find incredible statistics like “98.2 percent of the stops in New York City yielded no illegal weapon or drugs” is indicative of my white privilege. Those Americans who get stopped for Driving While Black or Brown don’t need to hunt statistics and read books; they experience the reality that I, in my middle class, white life, am removed from.

This must stop. Persecution and repression must stop. Everyone should feel safe. Everyone should feel free. And when people are murdered, the murderers most certainly need to be held accountable.