I just finished watching a video called, “What the left won’t tell you about the plight of black lives and the myth of racism.” which features a series of video snippets where black men are interviewed about their experience of racism and what they believe the “problem” is facing black citizens in the United States. And it is a refreshing look at some of the ideas that are affecting our culture today.

Most notably, I was listening to one man who mentioned that he was a scuba diver. During scuba classes, the dive instructor said that while they are in shark-infested waters, everything they come in contact with must be treated like it’s a shark. It could be the tiniest guppy and it’s a shark. This perception informs his actions and can save his life scuba diving.

He went home and told his children that in the world today, they need to act like everyone around them is a shark. They need to keep calm and keep aware of their surroundings. At no point should they act aggressive toward a shark because a shark will tear you limb from limb and if there’s one shark, there are more so you certainly won’t survive even if you beat one.

I believe that cops are trained in the same manner. When they are on patrol in dangerous neighborhoods, they are swimming in shark-infested waters. They believe that every person they encounter regardless of race is a shark. They are taught to never let their guard down and to avoid conflict if possible. But their job has been to arrest people breaking the law so it’s worse for them. They have been given the task of scuba diving in shark-infested waters, finding the worst sharks, and catching them without hurting them.

Later in the video, the same guy mentions that he knows a ton of cops. And that 99% of the cops that he has ever met are really great guys and gals. It dawned on me at that moment the problem we are facing in America. 99% of black people are really great people just like cops. But that one percent of people that aren’t great are more violent and more criminal than all of the rest of the country combined. Just like that one racist cop is more criminal and more racist than all of the other cops.

To hold all cops responsible for the actions of a small percentage of racist cops is only slightly different in scope than holding all black citizens responsible for the ultra-violent, but tiny fraction of black citizens that are causing more death and destruction than the rest of the country.

What we are seeing today is important if we can learn from it. What we are seeing is black citizens responding like cops. It’s a mirror reflection of what’s happening in both communities. But the problem is that this attitude makes every guppy and every shark in the water twice as bad because a mirror in the water doubles the sharks to be aware of.

We need to quit this sort of blanket prejudice and realize that there are bad parts of every part of society. We are not all representative of our race. We are not responsible for the worst things that anyone who shares our skin tone has done. Our skin tone does not say anything about the alignment of our ideals and so long as we separate ourselves by our skin tones, there will be racism, there will be judgment, and there will be death.

With cops, we need to understand that to them, we are all sharks and they are obligated by the times they deal with real sharks to fear every guppy they come in contact with–regardless of race. We need to understand that when in shark-infested waters, you act responsibly, you don’t call attention to yourself and you don’t seek conflict with a shark.

Imagine scuba diving with a bunch of black citizens that feel that it’s somehow reasonable to yell at, punch, kick, and threaten every shark they are surrounded by. We would be warning black citizens of how racist sharks were when the white scuba divers escape unharmed and the black scuba divers who were calm did the same. But the most vocal, the most visible, the most aggressive, and uncooperative black citizens would get eaten up every time. We’d blame the sharks as being racist.

And to be clear, if you are driving around looking like a shark and a cop comes in contact with you, he is obligated for his safety and every guppy in the area, to check it out. If you are acting in a manner that other sharks have acted, the cop is going to check you out. That doesn’t make him/her racist just because the most violent and most dangerous sharks out there look and act like you.