This year has been filled with examples of racial discrimination and police brutality. From Ferguson to Cleveland to McKinney, Texas, we've seen tons of coverage about these often-tragic events, but rarely do we see real discussion about the conditions that lead up to such violence.

Despite what many on the Right claim, our nation has not yet repaired the damage of 250 years of slavery and another 100 years of Jim Crow. And, the fact that we have an African American president does not erase the institutional racism that persists in much of our country.

In a recent op-ed in the Guardian Newspaper, Congressman Keith Ellison explained how “the systematic economic abandonment of black neighborhoods” and “the failed war on drugs” created the violent police tactics that spawned the Black Lives Matter movement.

Congressman Ellison pointed out that in the last 30 years, Republicans enacted policies that left communities of color without jobs or resources, and then criminalized the resulting conditions and sent millions of black men to prison. But, Ellison said, the results of those tactics, “are inevitable, not unstoppable.”

The fact is, we can create economic opportunity in communities of color by investing in those neighborhoods. And, we can stop police brutality with better training, more resources, and an end to Nixon's failed drug war.

These aren't radical ideas, they're common sense, and they benefit our nation as a whole as much as they benefit minorities.

Congressman Ellison wrote, “We can't wait another 30 years and just hope that the systematic poverty upheld by Republican policies goes away on its own.”

In order to be a stronger, more equal nation, we must lift up all our communities and put an end to institutional racism once and for all.