Jesus friggin...

Look, I'm a black guy. I've been in front of the criminal justice system. I have experienced disproportionate sentencing when charged with possessing 0.05 grams of marijuana and got slapped with a year of probation, sixty hours of community service, to date, I've paid almost $1800 out of pocket in court fines and mandatory drug classes by the same judge who thirty minutes prior sentenced a white man charged with his second DUI offense-one that put a girl in the hospital-with no community service, $500 in fines and nine months of probation.

I've been stopped by the police while walking in my own neighborhood in Hyde Park to ask what I'm "doing here". I've been pulled over in a nice car paid for with my own money and asked where I stole the vehicle from.

I absolutely get that there are elements of our society that need to be addressed so people like me aren't constantly worrying about how we will be treated by the justice system and the constabulary to the point where I've returned to school for criminal justice. And I understand that at large it's not just about me, it's about many people who feel for a lot of reasons beyond race that their lives and individual experiences are cheapened and discounted by those with systematic power at their hands.

This sort of talk sets us all back, hurts us all, deepens divisions and fuels hate and it has to stop, and is starting to feel like people don't want justice, they don't want equality or the deliverance from being ostracized by a system that places a premium on keeping certain groups and classes down, but rather they want to enact revenge and call it justice and it makes me legitimately angry when people try to defend these revenge tactics and hide behind worn out academic language to get away with it.

I'm glad this young man is being removed from a position where he can push these hateful ideals, but I am sad he seems to have learned nothing from it.