Near the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, after Harry has witnessed the rebirth of Lord Voldemort and the murder of Cedric Diggory, Albus Dumbledore speaks gently to his favorite pupil about all that he has seen. Dumbledore does not hide the difficulties of the world that Harry will face, but imparts instead a valuable lesson that all of us would do well to retain. “Dark and difficult times lie ahead,” Dumbledore says. “Soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.”

I thought of that quote today when I came across a tweet (found here) that purported to show Officer Darren Wilson, in the hospital, with bruises and stitches suffered at the hands of Mike Brown and claiming: “Here’s what the sweet, innocent, gentle giant #MichaelBrown did to #DarrenWilson…” . Darren Wilson, you will remember, stopped the 18-year-old Mike Brown for walking in the middle of the street in Ferguson, Missouri. That stop led to a confrontation, which resulted in Wilson fatally shooting Brown.

The original claim that this photo was of Darren Wilson seems to have been on Facebook, and Gawker reports as of Thursday that photo had over 40,000 shares. I tried to track back to the original poster but I got a dead end.

Do I even need to bother stating that the photo in question is not Darren Wilson? The man in the photograph is the late motocross racer Jim McNeil, but such a detail hardly matters. The only thing that matters to the people who share this image is the promulgation of the lie: that Mike Brown deserved to get killed.

For too many, the lie that Brown deserved his death is easy to accept, and supporting it with other lies is just as easy. The photo is now being shared across social media and in-boxes around the world. Believing the lie is easy, but even that is not necessary if one’s aim is to promote the benefits of racism.

If one’s aim as a white American is to maintain the benefits of a racist culture, it doesn’t get easier than spreading racist lies through the online channels of racists. Make a photo, share it as fact, let it spread, delete it from your own record, and voila. Racism promulgating racism. Easy as can be. Like Professor Dumbledore said, we all have to choose between what is right and what is easy. We should also remember that what is easy is usually wrong.