After a week that brought us two black men killed merely doing what millions of people with white skin do every day — drive cars and occupy space on sidewalks — what can I say to my friends of color?

After a week that brought us the deaths of five police officers who were doing their duty protecting Black Lives Matter demonstrators, what can I say to my friends in the police force?

After a week like last and way too many other deaths of black and Latino men at the hands of police, what can I say to my friend and office partner whose young grandsons are black and Latino?

After a week like last, and way too many others, what can I say to my friends who don’t see white privilege?

Honestly, I don’t know. I’m tired of seeing this framed as, excuse the pun, a black and white issue — you’re either for the police or you’re against them. And I’m sick of the politicians who feed on dividing us. So, because I’m spent and have no words, I’m letting some others speak for me.

“You can truly grieve for every officer who’s been lost in the line of duty… and still be troubled by cases of policy overreach. Those two ideas are not mutually exclusive.” — Jon Stewart

“If you are white, and you work in a black community and you are racist, you need to be ashamed of yourself. How dare you stand next to me in the same uniform and murder somebody?” — Cleveland police Officer Nakia Jones, who says there are plenty of her fellow officers who took the oath to protect people and meant it.

“We’re the most heavily armed violent society in the history of Western civilization and we dump this duty on 25-year-olds in police departments. The problem for American policing is we’re learning the hard way that our political establishment finds it far easier to develop a constituency at the expense of our police than to solve these social problems.” — Ed Flynn, the police chief in Milwaukee.

“All I know is that this must stop — this divisiveness between our police and our citizens.” — Dallas police Chief David O. Brown.

“It’s impossible to deny that being born with white skin in America affords people certain unearned privileges in life that people of another skin color simple are not afforded. For example: I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

“When I am told about our national heritage or about ‘civilization,’ I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

“If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race.

“I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

“This is not said to make white people feel guilty about their privilege. It’s not your fault you were born with white skin and experience these privileges. But, whether you realize it or not, you do benefit from it, and it is your fault if you don’t maintain awareness of that fact.” — Gina Crosley-Corcoran, author of “Explaining White Privilege to a White Broke Person,” who “came from the kind of Poor that people don’t want to believe still exists in this country.”

I can say this to my friends of color and to my office mate. I will continue to do the social justice work I’ve been doing for most of my life even though there are times when I just consider increasing my anti-depressant dose or withdrawing from the fight. I will continue to hope my efforts and those of my white friends will work to dismantle systemic racism and poverty in this country because they work together to keep us from understanding that beneath the color of our skin, we all want the same thing — to live our lives in peace, surrounded by people who love us. The promise of that goal sustains me.

Karen Heck is a longtime resident and former mayor of Waterville.

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