Dear Justice System of the United States of America,

You say that you uphold justice

Yet not justice for all?

When you claim that you're the law

But I can't tell which side you're on.

From everything I saw

It feels like you're the outlaws.

 

The law is not determined

By your race, status, or skin color.

The law is not determined

By how much the cops like you.

The law is not determined

By whether you put your hands on the steering wheel.

The law is not determined

By whether it looks like you are capable of a crime.

The law is not determined

By whether you wanted to pull them over,

Wanted to arrest them

Wanted them to resist

Wanted them to fight back

Wanted to hurt them

Wanted to beat them.

The law is not determined by you.

 

You are supposed to uphold the law, and keep safe all those under it.

Not just those of your skin color,

Not just those of your race.

Not just those of your background,

Not just those with a lighter hue on their face.

Everyone.

The whole crew,

The entire herd,

Them, me, you.

There are laws to follow.

A set of rules and regulations.

And all fall under it,

Including you.

So uphold it.

 

I thought we were moving forward.

I thought civil rights had progressed.

Have we really learned so little,

That after countless evidence brought before the law we can't admit our flaws?

 

Now I speak to the black community, to everyone who has been so mistreated, abused by a system that was supposed to keep them safe.

You should be proud of who you are,

No matter what you look like.

If you're oppressed, stand prouder.

If you're discriminated against, stand prouder.

Because you go through so much

That others may never experience.

You go through so much pain,

And some don’t come out.

But stand prouder

So you can overcome the world.

 

Look back to Martin Luther King Jr.

And the extraordinary things he did.

The protests he led, the people he influenced, the progress he made.

We cannot let what he did be in vain.

Where we see injustice, it must be quenched.

Where we see corruption, it must be squashed.

Where we see the fire of discrimination, the sparks of racism, they must be put out.

 

But we must look back to MLK.

We must look back to the things he said.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

We will protest peacefully.

We will do our marches with our hands on our signs and linked with hands, and nothing else.

We will not bring ourselves down to their level, to the level of violence.

Instead, we will show that we're the same, human beings, flesh, blood, sweat, and tears.

All of us are made of flesh, but only some have been discriminated against based on the color of it.

All of us have blood coursing through our veins, but only some have had it unjustly spilled.

All of us perspire in our hardships, but only some have been so scorched by the heat of a biased society.

All of us have tasted the salt from our tears, but only some have had so many spilled because of such unelicited hate.

 

Now the time has come, the appeal has been made, the court has been called into session, so that justice may be served.

And our voices will be heard.