PK NOTE: Their Lives Matter Too. It’s a book you must pick up. Names you’ve never encountered, stories you’ve never read about, all for one, unmentionable reason: black on white murder. We were never supposed to notice what’s happening. We were never supposed to catalogue the names and tell their stories. But we did. But we have. Their Lives Matter Too.

Diversity. Inclusion. Equity. Tolerance (D.I.E.T.).

We are force-fed these ideas from cradle to grave, as they represent the highest morality in the western world. Any deviation from this carefully choreographed script immediately castigates you as a pariah, unworthy of admission into polite society. The only panacea to what’s happening is not to notice patterns, pretend they don’t exist, and to blindly and without question blame all problems the black community faces on one of the following (or all, if you wish): redlining, structural inequality, implicit bias, white privilege, the residue of a white supremacist power structure, the bigotry of low expectations, the legacy of slavery or failure to pass the brown-paperbag test.

Just believe in D.I.E.T., because believing in these concepts means you understand, fundamentally, your right to exist is forfeit. Ultimately, you exist not to enact policies that will be beneficial “for our posterity,” but to ensure the proliferation of the principles of Diversity. Inclusion. Equity. Tolerance (D.I.E.T.).

But for one brief moment, let’s pretend we aren’t afraid to veer in a different direction and engage in pattern recognition. To notice reality with our racial lenses firmly attuned and boasting the right prescription. What horror might we encounter? Two black males murdered a white 18-year-old female over a pair of shoes in a “transaction gone wrong.”

Her name is Andrea Camps. [Hundreds line up to honor 18-year-old victim killed over Yeezy sneakers in Miami-Dade, Local10.com, April 14, 2020]:

Hundreds of drivers showed up Tuesday to a procession in honor of Andrea Camps, an 18-year-old Terra Environmental Research Institute student who was killed during a robbery in Miami-Dade County. Camps’ family asked the drivers to avoid stopping to respect social distancing guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic. “Rest in peace, angel,” read one sign on a pick-up truck. A large heart-shaped picture of Camps was hanging from the side of a sports utility vehicle. A teenage girl held a sign with flowers: “Our condolences for your loss. She is in heaven now.” Camps’ funeral and burial service were at Caballero Rivero Woodlawn South at 11655 SW 117th Ave., in Kendall. On a table, the family displayed a picture of her during her First Communion. There were also pictures of her days as a student at the Devon Aire K-8 Center, and a stuffed animal with a Florida International University shirt. She had been admitted to nursing school there. When the service was over, her mother, Maria Lacayo, and her sister Alex Camps, stood near the side of the road in the cemetery to wave at the drivers. “We love you,” a woman shouted from the passenger side of a sedan. Camps died April 7th when two 19-year-old men ambushed her and her boyfriend to steal $935 in Adidas Yeezy sneakers, police said. The two accused confessed and are being held without bond. News of the murder made it all the way to England. On Tuesday, a small group attended an open-casket prayer service with Monsignor Pablo Navarro, of St. John Neumann Catholic Church. Between 300 to 400 people watched it on Instagram Live. The drivers lined up on 117th Avenue and followed Miami-Dade police officers guiding them near the gravesite where Camps family greeted them in tears. The procession ended at the cemetery’s exit on 112th Street. The Camps Lacayo family is planning a mass when her headstone is ready for installation at the graveside.

Murdered over a pair of shoes.

Andrea Camps had her whole life in front of her, preparing to graduate high school and embark on a college career leading to her chosen vocation of being a nurse.

But she was murdered by two black males over a pair of shoes.

The racial dynamics of what happened to Ms. Camps’ occurs with frightening frequency across the United States, though only those heretics of the benevolent ruling ideology of D.I.E.T. dare notice.

Yet we persist in rebelling.

We persist in noticing the failure of policies inevitably leading to the collapse of our civilization.

Her Name is Andrea Camps.