I Am
I am the suffragette who told Black women to march at the back
Even though their cause was mine
I am Hillary Clinton who was Tough on Crime
I spoke with passion to pass a bill that jailed Black men for life
For the crimes of smoking a bowl or carrying a knife.
I am Officer Amber Guyger
I shot Botham Jean dead in his home
I said that I mistook it for my own; he was unarmed.
I am Officer Betty Shelby
I shot Terence Crutcher dead on a roadside stop; he was unarmed
I kept my job.
I am Carolyn Bryant. I said Emmett Till touched me in the grocery store
He was beaten to death, his lovely 14-year-old face bludgeoned into deformity
53 years later I told the world that I had lied.
I am the 53% of white women who voted for Donald Trump.
I am Mrs. Jefferson Davis, first lady of the Confederacy.
I am the Southern women who need “protecting”
By burning Black men and hanging them from trees.
I am Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the great feminist. I worked with Frederick Douglass,
I think Black men are rapists, I call Black men “Sambo.”
I am a Daughter of the Confederacy weeping for men who fought to own Black people.
I am Julie who called the cops on a child selling lemonade.
I am Penny who called the cops on a child whose backpack brushed me at the store.
I am the white mom teaching her children that Black boys mean danger.