Students should be aware of the importance of #Project Outline and the people whose untimely deaths led to the creation of this project.

Students may have noticed chalk outlines of deceased people drawn throughout campus on Sept. 22. The outlines were created by members of the Black Student Union as part of their #ProjectOutline to make NIU’s campus aware of the killing of unarmed black people by police officers, which continues to be a major problem in our society.

Through #ProjectOutline, the Black Student Union hopes to encourage students to educate themselves on this serious issue facing black people and to highlight the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Traci Jennings, president of the Black Student Union, said members of the Black Student Union found themselves looking for an outlet to express their feelings after the recent shootings of Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“It’s kind of difficult being a black student and having to carry the weight of what’s going on and what’s happening to black people in this country, and so we just needed a way to express that,” Jennings said. Jennings credits Shada Cook, director of public relations for the Black Student Union, for coming up with the idea to draw outlines to represent the bodies of those who have been killed.

It seems as though every other week a new story breaks about an unarmed black person dying at the hands of police under questionable circumstances.

Whether they committed a crime or not, these individuals were not granted the only right stated in the Constitution twice: due process of law. If a person commits a crime, they should be arrested, but it is also their constitutional right to have their day in court. These people were not granted that right.

“As someone who is almost 50 years old, who has a doctorate degree, even I know that my interactions with police are not the same as my white counterparts,” said William McCoy, director of NIU’s BELIEF program.

McCoy teaches his students that they should protest injustice while being aware of the reality of how things are now.

Jennings encourages people to be open-minded and to be aware of the real reasons why the Black Lives Matter movement exists. She said there seems to be confusion on what the movement stands for.

“Black Lives Matter is not anti-police, it’s not anti-white people,” Jennings said. “It’s simply saying right now it seems as if our lives don’t matter as a whole in this country.”

The story “Divided: Students respond to Black Lives Matter movement” in the Sept. 26 issue of the Northern Star included input from a student named Andy. While I respect that people will have opposing viewpoints on various issues, I was disturbed by the comments he wrote next to the chalk outline meant to represent Michael Brown.

Dismissing Brown’s untimely death as a law enforcement victory over someone Andy described as a “thug” is a perfect example of why further education on this issue is needed. Justifying the misdemeanor crime that Brown committed with his death reflects a system that is in dire need of reform. Due process should be extended to all citizens. While the article ran under the headline “Divided,” Cook points out this was not the intention of #ProjectOutline or the Black Lives Matter movement.

“#ProjectOutline was derived from a very honest and true place.” Cook said. “We don’t want to be divided, that’s the whole goal of the Black Lives Matter movement. We want to be inclusive. Absolutely we know all lives matter, but there is no reason to go around shouting something that’s already believed to be true…If you believe that all lives matter, you should be fighting like hell to include the black ones,” she said.

This is a serious issue that is in need of continued awareness, education and advocacy. Such actions can begin here on college campuses and hopefully spread beyond that. This is the goal of #ProjectOutline and the Black Student Union.

Cook encourages NIU students who would like to get involved with the Black Student Union or #ProjectOutline to reach out via social media @TheUnionNIU.