Calling the police on Black people puts them in danger. White folks, we’ve started to use calling the police more as a way to keep people out of certain spaces or prevent certain behaviors than to respond to legitimate emergencies. When we do this without examining our biases — without asking ourselves why we feel like certain people don’t belong or certain behaviors are a nuisance — it’s not surprising that the outcomes tend to be racist.

There are plenty of recent examples: the white woman who called police on Black people barbecuing, the white woman who called police on a Black woman taking a nap in her dorm common room, the white woman who called police on two Black men waiting for a friend at Starbucks. Any of these could’ve ended in tragedy. One solution is obviously dealing with the militarized and racially biased policing that is simply a fact in our country.

But another? Another is to STOP CALLING THE POLICE. I’ve grappled with this over the past few years as a white woman, and here’s my own personal plan:
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