A young black man has literally been lynched, yet there has been barely any media coverage on it. Richard Collins III, a student at Bowie State University, was just about to graduate when his life was taken brutally by a white supremacist. Collins was a very bright student and a commissioned second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. The white University of Maryland student, Sean Urbanski, walked up to Collins, who was waiting at a bus stop on campus for an Uber ride, and stabbed him in the chest after he refused to move for him. This may not necessarily be the traditional lynching, which is the hanging of a black man on a poplar tree, but rather this is modern day lynching: the murder of a black man in broad daylight on a university campus.

Urbanski, a white supremacist who is part of a Facebook group called “Alt-Reich Nation” where members post racist material about African Americans and black people. He knew exactly what he was doing and clearly had well articulated motives for leading out this crime, so no, Urbanski was not “mentally unstable” or whatever they call white kids who commit horrifying crimes. He was a terrorist—a homegrown terrorist. The FBI is seriously still trying to investigate whether this horrific act was a hate crime, but I have no idea why there needs to be an investigation for this. His motives for murdering Collins were none other than the fact that he was black. It is very ironic how Collins served in the United States Army in order to serve and protect, yet he is still hated by many of the people he risks his life for just because of the color of his skin.

The murder of Collins was caught on tape, and just like every time a black man is killed on camera, authority will always try to investigate for another reason that black man was killed, although it is very evident. This is a narrative that we have been accustomed to for a long time. I mean, if a black person cannot even go to school and feel safe, where else can they go? Black people are killed in churches, schools, at the park or inside their own homes and cars, so it is no surprise that they can never be assured that they won’t die wherever they go. It is very frustrating living in constant fear of the possibility of getting killed, for no reason, wherever you go if you are black. This should not be the case, especially in 2017 America, but it just seems like we continue to move further back on the progression that America was taking a step toward.

One of the most infuriating things about the murder of Collins is that there was barely any news coverage on this story. Not only that, but you would expect there to be better safety measures on college campuses to ensure that students are not carrying weapons. The administration of the University of Maryland needs to speak up and join the fight to combat such hate crimes. For some reason, many college campuses refuse to do that. It will not be enough to just pretend that the murder of Richard Collins did not happen. White supremacists exist, even on college campuses, and they need to be stopped before more blood sheds and more violence on college campuses persists.