"I felt threatened" and "he resisted" and "she did not comply" and "he matched the description" and "I was afraid for my life" are modern-day code words that give white supremacy a secure, reliable foothold in this generation, free of all accountability and justice.

Go ahead and use them, white people. You will be assured a safe place inside the justice system and plenty of sympathy for your white fragility. It will work for you. It will prioritize your racism over the lives of black and brown bodies, their families, and their legacies.

From top to bottom, your whiteness will be protected. Your innocence, fear, & perception will be assumed as true & right. It will partner with the opposite assumption: black & brown bodies are to be feared, suspected, & punished. The system works exactly as it was designed to.

If we are not anti-racist, we are racist. There is no neutral when black lives continue to be dispensable and disposable day after day. There is no neutral when we gently benefit from white supremacy without challenging its demonic, inherent evils. This is our work.