Livid. Disgusted. Tired. Thinking of the list of things that, as an African American, can get me murdered by police: jogging in my own neighborhood, sleeping in my own bed, bird-watching in the park, sitting in my own car on the street. Even with camera's rolling, a black life can be extinguished in the blink of an eye...or 8 minutes and 46 seconds. And you can be arrested, apparently, for reporting while black as Oscar Jimenez discovered this morning. Hearing the people in charge of the investigation of George Floyd's murder say things like, "We have nothing to report..." or "We have to determine whether or not what the officer did was criminal..." AND not putting those officers under arrest gives me pause. THESE ARE THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE OF THE INVESTIGATION. How/where/when does a black person get justice in America? LeBron James' "Do you understand now?" tweet is aimed at those white folks who just don't seem to get it. The good white folk, the liberal white folk. And why should they? They don't know what it feels like to be Black in America. The haiku's I wrote this morning. "When the Lines are Drawn" is from a poem that I wrote the day after Charlottesville. Let me give you a glimpse of how it feels.
Ahmed, Breonna, George (10:49am)
Ahmed Arbery
Breonna Taylor, George Floyd-
No justice, no peace!
Sick and Tired Stew (10:54am)
The pot's on the stove
Blue lives snuffing out Black lives-
The boiling point - reached!
When the Lines are Drawn (aka Fuck You)
Fuck you
All of you
What?
You thought I would invoke Michelle and “Go high”, right?
Not this fucking time
I cannot take the high road
It is blocked with signs that read
“Caution”
“Hazard Ahead”
“Road Closed”
“Dead End”
I am always the one expected to be
Patient
Understanding
Benevolent
I am always asked to be your
Teacher
Comforter
Absolver
Of all your white guilt and sins
All reek of entitlement
or can’t you see that
because you can’t see beyond your own bubble
Poor
Little
White
Liberal
Oh, you thought I was talking about them
The others
The Keep America White Agains
With their monster trucks
Trump caps
Flak jackets
And red necks
When the lines are drawn
Aren’t you all the same
Privileged
Entitled
White
You, too, will kick and scream to keep what you have
You think you won’t
But you will
You hear of all the
Hate-mongering
Profiling
Police murders of black bodies
And you are
Shocked
Appalled
And although you won’t say it in mixed company
Doubtful
of the innocence of the
Eric Garner's
Mike Brown's
Rekia Boyd's
Trayvon’s
Laquan’s
Tamir’s
Sandra’s
And
Philando’s
“Let’s wait until all the evidence is in”
“We don’t know what REALLY happened”
“They must have done SOMETHING”
“Policing is a difficult job”
When the lines are drawn
Slavery
Black Codes
Jim Crow
Segregation
War on Drugs
Mass Incarceration
Different day
Same shit
When marchers in Charlottesville yell out
“Ape!”
“Monkey!”
And drive cars at full speed into crowds of people
You can’t believe it
Pearls are clutched
But their hatred
and your disbelief
make my fucking blood boil
When the lines are drawn
You are armed with
Clubs
Knives
Shields
or worse –
Apathy and Fatigue
“I’m just so tired of talking about race!”
I’m tired of your
Bigotry
Bias
Innate obliviousness
Having to prove my humanity to you
When the lines are drawn
You have the power of
Laws and Legislation on your side
What do I have
Prayer
Forgiveness
Jesus
When the lines are drawn
I feel
Fury
Vengeance
Wrath
This shit is Biblical
I have no more
Kumbaya’s to sing
We shall overcomes
Cheeks left to turn
When the lines are drawn
I will remember the mistakes of the past
When we thought that
Love
Would conquer
Hate
Next time
There will be blood
I won’t be the one to bleed
An eye for an eye makes us all blind
I’m boning up on my Braille
When the lines are drawn
There is no healing without first being heard
Ahmed, Breonna, George and Sick and Tired Stew Copyright O. Dawson 2020
When the Lines are Drawn Copyright O. Dawson 2018
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