With the recent shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., the issue of racial profiling has been brought to the nation’s attention yet again. Fortunately for our society, a majority tend to agree that this kind of stereotyping is extremely unfair and has no place among humanity. Unfortunately, racial profiling is still present in modern times and has caused several protests recently, some of which have resulted in violence.

America is known as the “melting pot” because of the multitude of mixed ethnicities and races present among the country’s population. There are some people who have pale skin, but have one white parent and one black parent. In rare cases, people with two black parents may end up with fair skin because they received a specific collection of genes. If any of those people had the phenotype for dark skin, how different would that truly make them? Their personalities would be the same—all that would be different is the color of their skin. If Brown had been white, it is debatable whether or not his confrontation with Officer Darren Wilson would have ended differently.

To examine this further, one simply has to revisit the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2012. Martin, an unarmed black teenager, was fatally shot by a neighborhood watchman. Martin’s death and the subsequent trial of George Zimmerman sparked protests across the country, especially in Florida. However, in the case of Michael Brown, similar protests turned violent. As more details of the shooting began to emerge, it became clear how flawed Wilson’s actions actually were; the officer was three times farther away from Brown than legally acceptable to shoot from, and Brown was unarmed.

New broadcasts in recent weeks have shown scenes of violence in the streets of Ferguson, and have accompanied reports of multiple arrests of protestors and journalists. Police and the Missouri National Guard responded to the protesters with tear gas, later denying this despite photographic evidence, which only increased the protesters’ anger.

There are two major issues with this entire ordeal. First, the police brutality—not only from the authorities opposing protestors, but from Officer Wilson himself—reached drastic proportions, and none of the involved police have been punished for it. Wilson has still not been tried for his crimes, even though the murder was unjustified. He is on paid administrative leave despite the disgrace he brought to the town of Ferguson and its police force.

Second, the violent protests have gotten completely out of hand. Although shooting someone because of racial stereotypes is indescribably wrong, there are better ways to respond to such an event. The violence in Ferguson has had no effect other than temporarily closing down schools and creating unrest among the city’s population.

“The healing process will take time, and closure will take a really long time,” HSHS sociology teacher Nanette Wolfe said. “Law and order need to be established—that’s the priority. Violence only compounds the problem.”

The disorder in Ferguson has simmered down over the last few weeks, but many problems have been left unresolved. Racial profiling may never go away, even though it is pointless and unfair. Responding to profiling with violence only prolongs the grief.There may be different ethnicities and origins in this world, but ultimately there is only one race: the human race.