This week has brought another tragic series of murders of black people at the hands of the police. Terence Crutcher. Keith Lamont Scott. 13-year-old Tyre King – and those are just the names we know. Since NFL Quarterback Colin Kaepernick began protesting at the end of last month, refusing to stand for the national anthem of a country not protecting black people from police violence, at least fifteen more people have been killed by the police. Once again, communities are rising up to demand an end to a system that denies people of color their life and dignity, both in everyday policing and in death.

When police officers, departments, and the systems that are supposed to hold them accountable refuse to see black people as people and don’t recognize their murders as tragic, we must follow the leads of families and protesters taking to the streets to demand justice. In the face of continued violence committed by law enforcement, no inconvenience caused by protests is more important than the collective grief of people mourning today from Oklahoma to North Carolina, Ohio, and beyond.

Terence and Keith were both fathers whose children must now wake up without them. Tyre was a child who was deprived the opportunity to grow up. It is the responsibility of all who benefit from white supremacy to hold the immense pain that their families are experiencing in this moment. Their lives mattered, and we must continue to assert that Black Lives Matter until we live in a country – and world – that believes it and makes it so.