When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir

by Patrisse Cullors

Jim Crow left no questions or confusion. But now that race isn’t written into the law, she says, look for the codes. Look for the coded language everywhere, she says. They rewrote the laws, but they didn’t rewrite white supremacy. They kept that shit intact,

We thought he was on PCP or something, one says. He’s mentally ill, I respond, and wonder why cops never seem to think that Black people can have mental illness. He’s huge! one exclaims. Massive! They had to use rubber bullets on him, one says, casually, like he’s not talking about my family, a man I share DNA with. Like it’s a motherfucking video game to them.