“No justice, no peace!” An age-old battle cry that asserted the demands of those who were willing to say, “If this injustice continues then there will be no peace within the established order.”

Nowadays, such a mantra invokes images of the Civil Rights movement and the droves of people who protested, chanted, and marched for that justice. A time when our leaders stood and demanded freedom, justice, and equality, vocally and proudly. A time when our leaders accepted the call of responsibility and upheld that responsibility until justice was given. Until justice was provided, they were willing to upset the established order. It was not and is not a call to physical violence, but to aggression against an unjust system.

They fought in the name of us. They disrupted the established order to force change, a change that demanded justice be extended to us. And if justice wasn’t extended, they were willing to defy the peace of the status quo.

It was this sentiment that forced the abolishment of chattel slavery, that fueled the Civil Rights movement, that created the spirit that birthed the Black Liberation movement. It must be this sentiment that drives us.

Today, we must also demand no less than justice! If we as a people continue to accept injustice in any form, then we are all deserving of injustice. Freedom, justice, and equality are upheld and maintained by a principle of responsibility. It is our responsibility as a people, in the name of humanity, to not just say but stand up in the name of justice. It is our duty to protest, to shout, to vote, to unify, to protect, to educate, and to fight in the face of injustice. If injustice continues its course, then it is our duty to upset the peace of the established order.

Because injustice and peace cannot coexist.