I asked myself the question.

As per your request.

My answer is a solid,

“No. I am not afraid of cops.”

It isn’t in me to be afraid. Perhaps I should be. But I cannot pretend to understand something I don’t fully understand.

I am also not afraid of people of color. I am no more afraid of a black male than I am of a white one. I am probably afraid of men — regardless of how they look, but that’s another story.

I cannot project my life experience on other people. That doesn’t feel right to me.

Just because I’m not afraid, doesn’t mean other people do not have very good reasons to feel differently. I believe people when they say they are afraid. I do not question it.

But the truth for me is that in my life police have never given me a reason — personally — to fear for my safety.

I recognize this is a privilege.

I wish this was the truth for everyone. Why should I be free from that fear while my neighbors and loved ones aren’t?

What makes me so special?

I can’t make myself become afraid just because others have to be for their survival.

There is great wisdom in their fear. It’s curious too that there most certainly will come a time in which all of us will be required to have that fear inside ourselves if we do not fix this issue.

What I know right now is that I am not the target. I could easily become that, but it isn’t about me today.

Today this is about my black brothers and sisters. Today this is about me caring and supporting them.

I shouldn’t need to be injected with fear to care about what is happening to them. It shouldn’t require “self-regard.”

As a human being, I must be concerned with human rights. I must care because that is who I am. I want to focus on helping my human family feel like I do.

I don’t want to go the wrong direction.

I want to be free from fear of black men and equally free from fear of police — just as I am right this moment.

And I want the same for everyone else as well.