“Supporting Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+ doesn’t make you liberal; it makes you human. Supporting a vulnerable population should have no political affiliation.”

I want to share this quote in response to Matthew Krauter’s Opinions article “Politicization of everything bears a cost.” While the article had many commendable points, I did not entirely agree with it. The article culminated with the author’s clear value of unity: If only we did not politicize everything, our country would not be polarized and divided.

The author suggested: What if we stop politicizing everything? What if we take the politics out of supporting BLM and challenging racism? I believe this would lead to an illusion of unity, at best. While I understand the rationale behind this thinking, I want to propose a different approach to unity: We already have taken the politics out of supporting BLM and challenging racism. Because they were never about politics anyway; they are about human rights.

Once we see that kneeling during the National Anthem and participating in protests has nothing to do with politics, we will be able to embrace these movements for what they truly are. Only then will our country be able to be united — not as Republicans and Democrats, but as human beings.

Saheli is a graduate student in social work.