Four years ago this Friday, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed. The incident sparked widespread protests among communities of color and gave rise to our current era of growing racial awareness.

Yet four years after his untimely death, we find ourselves in the same place we were 40 years before it. Our contemporary brand of racism is dolled-up in coded pleasantries, but its bare bones are the same. Our police killed 102 unarmed black men a 2015, our political structures still reek of white supremacy and our cities are still starkly segregated. However, the prevalence of cameras and social media make the unwarranted killings of black americans much harder for society to ignore. Handheld media has has given us a window of possible action, and as we remember Martin’s death, it is crucial that we reaffirm our dedication to reform our public policy.

Change starts with us, but so far NYU’s policy toward social justice has been lacking. NYU has refused to stand with the Ban the Box student movement. Headed by the student-run Incarceration to Education Coalition, Ban the Box seeks to “remove the question on NYU applications that asks applicants to disclose their history within the criminal punishment system.” So many tenets of our modern justice system are the result of racism. Draconian bail policies that coerce guilty pleas. Disproportionately harsh sentences for defendants of color. Determining admittance based on a criminal record, which unjustly punishes poor black people who were have already served time. If we are to embrace the notion of a rehabilitative rather than punitive criminal justice system, we must demand that the box be abolished.

Beyond campus, the innate racism of New York’s justice department still plagues the city streets. Not only were citizens like Eric Garner and Kalief Browder killed, but each year New York City still houses over 9,000 people in Rikers Island, jails roughly 45,000 people who can’t afford bail and spends $42 million a year to incarcerate non-felony defendants.

In a city that prides itself on diversity and liberty, this is simply unacceptable. Relegating an entire group of citizens to cycles of poverty, violence and incarceration simply because of their skin color is a time-honored American tradition, but it’s one we too often forget still exists. Trayvon Martin showed us, the data shows us, the collective voices of millions of black citizens tell us that racism is real, it is violent and it is taking place everywhere, even in our own backyard. Today, and every other day, honor Martin’s memory by committing to change.

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Email Matthew Perry at [email protected].