During the one year I attended Indiana Institute of Technology, I made some friends who were Christian (the faith that I profess to belong to). One Sunday morning they invited me to walk to church with them. I paid no attention to the fact that they my friends escorting me were all African-American until we arrived at the church.

It was an African Methodist Episcopal church.

I don’t know why, but I got a little nervous. We could dissect the reasons why this occurred — I choose to not perform that analysis here. However, I was immediately put at ease by everyone who greeted me. I was so warmly welcomed that the experience remains strong in my memory some 30 years later.

Even though I was 50% of the White population in a church of 400+ congregants, I did not, even for a moment, feel like I was an outsider, different, or being scrutinized. That fact, in and of itself, is amazing to me. My 48 years of life have taught me that African-Americans are constantly being gawked at, criticized, and made to feel like outsiders in their own country. Instead of taking out those (all too valid) frustrations on me, they graciously put aside how White America treats them far too often, welcoming me to worship alongside them as a family member.

I am sure the murderer was given the same welcome. From the reports I read, it sounds like he enjoyed their company for at least a while before acting out in hate, slaying the very people who opened up their church to treat him with love and respect.

In her original article, Chaédria takes issue with some of the terms that the media has been using to describe the murderer (I refuse to mention his name), stating that terms like “mentally disturbed” and “shooter” are used instead of “terrorist” because he is White.

He may be mentally ill. He may have extenuating circumstances that taught him to hate, leading him to commit these brutal, senseless murders.

If someone wants to use these terms to explain what happened, I am fine with that. Nonetheless, these terms should not be used to justify what happened. He committed acts of murder and terrorism, and they should be described as such.

As a society, we are compelled to discover how this young man grew into a person who could act like this. We are compelled to discover those reasons, and do everything in our power to ensure they do not happen again.

Anyone who believes we are living in a post-racial society is either hiding in a cave or ignorant on purpose. The reason #Blacklivesmatter exists is not to make African-Americans more important than Whites. I believe they want to be just as important, because today, society tells them they are not.

Wake up.

PS: Please read Chaédria’s original article, found here.