This morning someone took my “Not One More” poster off of my locker, tore it up, and left it there on the ground. If you aren’t aware, “Not One More” is a campaign to end gun violence that has recently been focused on the frequent acts of police brutality perpetrated against the black community. I had this poster on my locker to show my solidarity with a community that is in a lot of pain, a community that is ignored and discounted, a community that is not being treated equally in the eyes of the law.

So to whoever tore this poster down from my locker: you are not some subversive maverick with an unheard of opinion; you are very obviously uneducated or deeply misinformed. You are attempting to make a mockery of the pain, rage, and repression people are feeling across this nation, and that is embarrassing.

You should be embarrassed that prison sentences black people receive for crime are almost 20 percent longer than the ones whites receive for identical crimes. You should be embarrassed that black people face brutality and death for selling a cigarette, shoplifting, or walking down the street in a sweatshirt. You should be embarrassed that this happened again a few days ago. You should be embarrassed that this is utterly and indubitably different than how white people are treated for the same offenses.

You should be embarrassed that after hundreds of years, racism is still so evidently ingrained into this nation, and you should be embarrassed that you have committed one more action to perpetuate it.

If you think that by tearing down my poster that you are expressing a valid opinion, you are not. The violence and racism happening in this nation are not matters of opinion, they are facts and statistics; I implore you to open your eyes and look at them.