By Jacob McGinley, Oakland University

April Foley’s message in “The Racial Injustice of Police Brutality” is very clear; we must do more in society to prevent and stop all forms of injustice to African Americans and minorities in this country.  Using this format to bring more light to an important issue today, of the issues faced by those at the hands of police departments around our country was smart of Foley.  With each page dedicated to a high-profile victim of Racial Injustice or Police Brutality it shows key details of the specific situation.  This piece by Foley made me truly realize how privileged I am to be who I am, specifically a white male from a middle-class family, to not have to face these same issues.  With many of those highlighted in this piece being around the same age as me it shows that these could have been my peers.  People who I am friends with or people with who I’m acquaintances with.  It all starts to put everything into perspective for someone who has never witnessed and of these situations and forces you to make sure that we find a solution to stops these from happening.  In this piece Foley conducted a survey with 38 participants.  One of the questions is “Do you fear for your safety due to the color of your skin?” and over 78% of them answered yes.  That is over 29 people! When you extrapolate that number out to be the entirety of the US population, just think of how large that number is.  For those people they must go about their daily lives with a constant thought in the back of their heads that something could happen to them just because the color of their skin.  Things in life that most people don’t even worry much about like getting pulled over for a simple speed violation never really turns into anything more that a warning and you are on your way.  But for others these can turn into grave situations.  If they encounter someone with prejudices the situation could escalate, and the results could be bad.  This piece by Foley made me realize that I should be doing more in my life and community to ensure that these tragedies don’t occur in my area.  Whether that be standing up for others when I see a situation that could go south, participating in protests or rallies dedicated to bring light to these issues, or even something as simple as signing petitions to hopefully enact meaningful reform to police forces around the country.  This is a very large issue that won’t be solved in a days’ time.  This will take years to see results and it will take everyone’s support if we want to get to a place where these situations no longer occur.