White supremacy aims to remove any sense of safety, belongingness and home to the black community in America. This insidious goal is rooted in the forced migration of our ancestors who came to this country as anything but welcomed guests. Anyone who watches the news can see the alienation of the black community continues today.

Antonio Ingram lives and grew up in Oakland. 

Oakland is my home and my roots go deep here. My dad’s family grew up here. I was literally born at home in my grandma’s house in East Oakland. Although I attended Yale College as a first-generation professional, I returned to the Bay Area to attend law school at UC Berkeley.

My career has taken me around the country and the world, but Oakland has always drawn me back with the magnetic feeling of home. But even in Oakland — my home, where I belong — I experienced alienation because I am a black man.

My friends and I were out in the Uptown area of Oakland and I accidentally bumped into an Asian-American woman as she was carrying a drink through a crowded bar. She called me a n—–r. I was shocked to say the least. In a single moment a place that carried all of the freedom and safety of home felt unsafe and alien. Through the use of a six-letter word I was immediately reminded that whites and those of other races view me as both other and inferior.  As a 6’1”, large black man I knew that I could not even risk confronting her because of the dire potential repercussions.

As the incident showed, white supremacy does not function as a binary of white hegemony versus black oppression. The spirit of white supremacy will possess whoever chooses to partner with it.

Black Lives Matter is about defying the structures and institutions that devalue our lives. At this moment in history the globe is starting to see how police brutality against black communities constitutes white supremacy.

But there are also other, subtler manifestations that serve as unwelcome reminders that tell black Americans we do not belong. It may look like the black Yale security guards who always questioned if I was a student even though I was with my classmates and wearing Yale apparel. It may look like a white diplomat asking me if I was really a lawyer during my Fulbright Fellowship in Africa. It even manifests as a mixed-race cop pulling me over as I drove through Richmond, Va., so he could ask me why I was in a certain neighborhood.

These anecdotes were white supremacy’s attempts to divest my sense of belonging in our society. White supremacy tells me that I am not smart enough to feel at home in Ivy League institutions. White supremacy tells me that my law degree and my bar passage should be interrogated because I don’t belong in the legal profession. White supremacy tells me that there are certain neighborhoods that are so beyond my realm of accessibility that I should refrain from even driving through them.

The devaluing of black lives and the dehumanization that leads to police brutality happens way before an officer lifts a baton or pulls a trigger. It happens in subtle ways when our intelligence is questioned. It happens in subtle ways when our sense of belonging is questioned. Of course we are gunned down and killed without recourse! Those who do not belong are not worthy of protection. Our rejection is the precondition for our literal erasure.

However, I refuse to bow to the spirit of white supremacy. I will continue to plant stakes in the ground and declare that my black skin is at home. My black mind is worthy. My black body is protected and safe. Oakland is my home and I will continue to declare that Black Lives Matter until the structures that devalue us crumble.

Antonio Ingram of Oakland is a litigation attorney practicing in San Francisco.