If a person is getting robbed and you intervening might save that person from being robbed and you choose to "mind your business cuz they ain't related to me", that's an act of cowardice, of course no one wants to admit that so they reframe their cowardice to rationalize why their cowardice is ok and also not actually cowardice, "i was'nt being a coward, I was being smart because what if he had a gun and shot me"
call a spade a spade. Not attempting to save someone and rationalizing it with excuses is cowardice not matter how you reframe it.
"I'm not gonna jump in the pool to save a bytch I don't even know, what if I drown?" = cowardice