The recording of Walter Scott being cut down was so terrifying because it was completely random. Is that not the point of terror, to make us all fear that any of us at any time might be its victim? I have said this before, in books, in sermons, in speeches, and in lectures, and it bears repeating here, again, because its truth is still not clear ... to be Black in America is often to feel under siege, to feel, in the marrow of our bones, genuine terror. To feel that no matter how much education or money we have, how nice a car we drive, how well behaved we are, how disarming and articulate we prove ourselves to be, at any moment we might feel a baton crushing our skull, a Taser sending a jolting message to our nervous system, a bullet penetrating our flesh. All because, and for no other reason than, we are Black.
-- Michael Eric Dyson, Long Time Coming, p. 41
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