1. Posting quotes about non-violence from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and ignore the ones where he talks about pain and injustice. “…a riot is the language of the unheard.”

2. Swallowing the media bias in selective use of labels like criminals and thugs to describe rioters but those who celebrate or mourn losses after sports teams win football or baseball games, also destroying public property are rowdy college kids.

3. Saying that protesting police brutality and injustice is a “Democrat” problem and not an American problem.

The roots of anger flaring up in Baltimore and Ferguson are fueled by the countless victims in thousands of other cities across the United States whose names won’t make headlines.

We must realize that there are two Americas. And that many of us have no idea what the reality is like for those with a hue of skin that marks them as targets for systemic violence.

Without this acknowledgement as a common ground, there can be no conversation. And without listening, there will no change.