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"It goes without saying" that there are problems in this country regarding treatment of African Americans at the hands of police.

No, it does not go without saying. No, it should not. It needs to be said, and maybe now, just maybe, this is the time that it is not only said, but thoroughly acknowledged and dealt with.

There have certainly been too many deaths of black people under circumstances where there seem to be no justification for lethal force. This has to stop, and it has to stop now. But that has been said before.

Some of us lived through the civil rights marches of the '60s, and some good came from them. But if you happen to see footage of those marches now, you are struck by how similar they are to the marches going on right now. And you are also struck by the realization that not enough has changed. Black and brown people are still in danger on their own streets. Parents of color have to instruct their children, especially their sons, about how to act so as to avoid danger at the hands of white people. But do those sons have to be told that they cannot jog through a residential neighborhood? Do they have to understand the security guard in the department store is tracking them, suspecting they are only there to steal things? It goes without saying this is all wrong.

But we would go farther. Why is it, in one of the richest countries in the world, that maternal health, especially black maternal health, is worse than in many Third World countries? Why are schools still segregated and doing a much poorer job educating black children than white? What is wrong with us that we can't fix these problems? They are not new problems.

Certainly poverty is at the root of many of these problems. What can we do about that? What, as members of the legal profession, can we do about it?

Well, how many attorneys of color are there at your firm or corporation or agency? Have you ever mentored a black law student, or a black student at any level of education? Do you donate your time to any agency that helps people of color with any of the life problems they face? How about your money? Is any of this going to make police brutality go away? Probably not in the short term, but hopefully yes, in the long term. And for the present, law enforcement has to change too. Now.

The time has come to stop talking. And even to stop marching—though that is a hopeful sign. The time has come to do. We are a privileged group with more education and more resources than most. The question is: What are you doing?