We have been drafted to protect white institutions that come at the cost of Black lives. We have been named a “model minority” to convince us that we’ve been saved a seat at the table among white peers — but that table was cut, assembled, and varnished by Black slaves. Asian Americans should look into the face of Tou Thao and see their own brother. It is our responsibility to bring him to justice, because he is not the only one.

White supremacy thrives off of keeping us obsessed with respectability, when there is nothing respectable about kneeling on a man’s neck while he cries for his life. There is a time for everything, and right now is a time for rage.