Civil Rights
Learn more about other poetry terms
On the distant heights of exile, that child sits. His beard is the ash of years, and his eyes gaze into eternity.
Small minded state pooling,
Chickens in a cage.
Carved for display.
Squaks yell: "Rage!
Let me range, free."
They may cut wings off
Don't fly
Might make the other birds feel bad,
Cry.
Portrayals portend a silent betrayal
Ratings and receptions
Small accolades for novel direction.
A cry of a farmer,
yet another number:
Statistic.
But it wasn't an audience member,
Ignorance.
attic beams bearing strange fruit
chair on the floor and bruise at the loop
queer friends hanging in the silent eaves
strange fruit dangling from the wooden beams
Tell me more about democracy
Nobody is a fool
Tell me more about dichotomy
Go ahead! I am cool
People are rioting in the streets of D.C., a plague is upon us, from Wuhan's best fresh meats, Syria fights and bombs their own, women and children lie dead in that town.
Hate swelled up inside me,
choking me,strangling me,
hiding myself from behind it
i could only stand and watch as i bellowed
and shout at my friend.
I heard me abuse him,
This is the dark time,my love,
all round the land brown beetles crawl about.
the shining sun is hidden in the sky,
red flowers bnd their heads in awful sorrow.
This is the dark time,my love
When i was stumbling
in the dark,confused
and crying out for help,
this friendly fello seemed amused;
And while i fought like anything
to keep the candle lit
he cheerfully reviewed
Beautiful black nurturing Mother,
Throughout history there is no other,
Who Am I?
Am i a shadwo,a chair or even a doorway?
I am a shadow
A shadow that has no way,
I am there but people walk through me
I stand aside,but still trouble follows;
You say it’s not the same
Your love
And our love
But why?
Why can’t it be the same?
You like who you like,
And we like who we like.
If we aren’t bothering you,
Then why bother?
Created for a family bond
After mass incarceration broke the family bond
Needing a sense of love and protection
For many Gangs took on those wanting affections
People arrested on non-violent crimes
This is no dream to me
It was not my ancestors dream
It was not something we wanted to achieve
Kidnapping and capturing brought us here
Where we built on once sacred Native lands
Do you care
Do you give a damn
Look around at all this bloodshed
We're not making this up
It's time to wisen up
The evidence has always been here
People are dying
To know thyself
is to self destruct
out of luck
Crying out in newborn desperation
People watch in fascination
Called to discrimination
Ears filled with litigation
One nation
PREFACE:
gloogenheister, gloogenheister
he's a looks a bit like a little gleister
gloogenheister, gloogenheister
he's mouth has just fangs looks like a gliester
gloogenhesiter, gloogenheister
When I grow up,I'd like to be a political doctor
And go down in history books for unveiling the mistry of helping this ailing nation.
A nation so ill that the will of the people is no longer an issue
Inspiration is a powerful word.
It shows our creativity
as I am sure you have heard.
People get inspired from differnt things.
For me, it is the one and only, Martin Luther King.
“Are you okay?" they ask."Yeah, I'm just tired" I answer.Just tired of work pilling up.Just tired of stress.Just tired of not being able to sit in math class without having an anxiety attack.
Saviour spoke
Those incarcerated,
Under siege
Locked in and
Excommunicated
Those who need watching
Who don’t know how to live
Shall be bestowed,
With a magical hug
To cure them of
Admiring his handiwork, he stood
Before the wall drenched in paint.
They compared him to Banksy; they would
Claim he could draw anything, without complaint.
But comparison to anyone was degrading,
La Boca
the mouth
Mi Boca
My mouth
I speak but I am hushed
Callate me dicen
No one should be allowed to speak
tienes poder
Lo tienes?
Do you have power?
No.
Frustrated!Frustrated at the actions of the people who's supposed to protect/Frustrated that right now my skin makes me a logical suspect/
Congratulations. You’ve done it.
With words of wisdom and liberty,
You can lean back and sit
Back bent carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders,
Shirt soaked as open wounds ooze oppression,
My brothers marched as one today
They never saw it coming
And I have never seen such pain
Or so many people running
With dead set eyes and shaking hands,
Ms. Claudette Colvin,
As a targeted, yet resilient, black teenager,
They didn’t take you seriously:
Your actions were done impulsively
Not a proper symbol of a savior
I have a journey in mind
What can be sweet and kind
About this world in which we live
What does this morning give?
It’s a little past midnight and something doesn’t feel quite right…
I’m sitting in bed, with crazy thoughts in my head, trying to understand why it’s so hard for Negros to get ahead.
“I’m Not A Threat, Unless Your A Threat To Me”
Why can’t you just let me be
Why are you offended when I decide to take a knee
Why can’t, you see, why we, seem to disagree
Man, screw the system
The system that seems to make everybody a victim
Sistahs sprung out on government assistance
Politicians out here tryna stop the resistance
Dear America
I'm afrrican-american
I feel that I do not belong
This is not my country.
My country isn't supposed to be this hard
This country is for white Americans-- not me.
Duality of Historic and Modern Black Women
-- 1957
Books, carassed in her arm,
Elizabeth, pressed on.
Wake up, America
the girls are crying, souls are dying
brothers in neighborhoods, broke as
hell but they’re trying, their utmost best
against an unjust system that
I Saw Many Colors In Same.
And, I Accept That Was The Truth!
Actully I Was A Fool.!
Sailu Bharya
In August of 1965,
The Voting Rights Act was Finally Signed.
It granted all Americans the right to Vote,
without taking tests and paying taxes at the Poll.
Thank to our leaders who risked their lives,
Silence can kill a game.
Silence has much shame.
Silence rings with pain.
Silence does not end with change.
Silence keeps fears locked away.
Wordsworth and Coleridge taught me some things
On appreciating nature and to love what life brings.
Wordsworth left his home to travel to beautiful places.
He beheld the beauty and let it inspire all his poetry’s faces.
Wordsworth and Coleridge taught me some things
On appreciating nature and to love what life brings.
Wordsworth left his home to travel to beautiful places.
He beheld the beauty and let it inspire all his poetry’s faces.
Why must I turn a blind eye to those that are cruel
people act as if it is a rule
but in my eyes that’s a crime
and I will not let it go this time
for we must all stand and fight
Slavery...the practice of forcing an individual to work, With absolutely no pay.Hustling early morning to late night in the fields,With undoubtfully no say.Day by day, the slaves pray,To make it out alive, knowing they must stay. Bull whips constr
Do you know me?
Do you know what it's like to be me?
Have you taken a walk in my shoes?
Oh! I'm just a little black girl in this America we live in.
I just have to work a little harder...
Look at her look at you
do you see those scars like I do?
They hide within your skin
to blend in
You forget about it over time,
but did you know it was an
abused crime?
In the land of the free
And the home of the brave,
Our government plays us
Like rats in a cage.
We can't afford rent
'Cause money don't pay
But there's no way to leave
It’s 4 PM here in Georgia,
And I’m enjoying time with my friends
We’re studying and laughing together,
As we enjoy diversity through our peaceful lens.
Dear Eskinder Nega,
Before today your name held no meaning
I did not think of you for I was still naive
I foolishly assumed that I had such great wisdom
But Eskinder, that I can no longer believe
Fake men afraid to have real conversations
Adverse persuasion
Scared of world view revelations
So the same hatin' going down in police stations
To Humankind,
It was not a human hand,
That rolled the planets into spheres
And placed them side by side.
It was not our fingers
Several suffer from the same persecutions. Rough, rampaging
Oceans may seperate the victims in space, but in savage
Cruelty they are united. We are denied the rights given to us
Dear Womanhood,
Thank you for your strength
For teaching me to hold my head high
For giving me the will to fight
Dear Womanhood,
You have made me cry
Love is love.It cannot be contained;Love is love.It has no boundaries, no laws;That the government tries to press on us;No social constraints;That others turn their backs at lost causes;
This is to fight back,
not violently but gradually
in the streets to meet the justice
they deserve,
with fists tight and high,
as high as skyscrapers
and as low as the streets;
Our poor, poor Queen.
Folks say she’ll swallow you in one big gulp,
But she cannot eat if she’s beaten to a pulp.
Her nipples are swollen from her own ravenous descent,
And corporate banks fuck her without consent.
My dad got remarried when I was ten.
To a woman whose hugs smelled like three shots of tequila before church,
we lived in a cracked window, bug baited, squeaky apartment
The sounds of blameless sounds rang upon my ears and every things went wrapping against,
At different interflows were the unintended collusions of bleeding leaves crying sweet red,
A woman who speaks her mind without hesitation.
A woman who follows her own path and dismisses the disapproving voices.
A woman who knows her limits and knows that we are lifelong learners.
My soul is shattering every second of the day
Outcasted by hate in any way
As I fall my fate begins to fade away
But I say NO!
All around are people, too
Busy to
Care about anything except the moment they are in, too
Distracted to notice that they are not the only ones that
Exist. They do not have the time to see the world
People like you are dangerous creatures,
hiding behind smiles,
favours,
and preachers.
Fallen from grace,
says you,
just beacause you don't want to feel forgotten too.
The opportunity they give me are like the fast food handouts they pass out on the street. Profile me and see what I can be. Black and powerful is what I see. I'm more than a thing I'm a human being a heart and soul is what you can't see.
America was made
To be great.
From the small towns to businesses,
It was all so great.
Until one day settlers came along.
From Columbus to Addams,
They started out strong.
Darkness coils across the horizon,
Its fingers clawing at the light.
The sun trembles and fades.
Grayness wins the sky and
Starts its invasion
Are we really who we want to be?
Home of the brave and land of the free,
Yet turning our back on refugees.
Who are we really?
Not giving enough help to the needy,
And not always acting morally.
tell me, what
what
what would you do if you could feel?
killin our people
do you see souls behind eyes?
killin our people
it’s been a dark night
you’ve got to breathe
I used to break door handles,
A habit my parents never cherished.
Someone would hide behind the door,
And I'd come chasing after them.
The slam of the door
The click of the lock,
America – home of the brave.
Neigh – home of the majority
Home of the security, the humility, the fidelity
Can anyone see the gravity?
The gravity of the situation at the tips of our fingers
What is good and tasteful? Is it to follow what has been force-fed to me? If so, tell me please Is my kind evil and disgraceful? Were We more fit as slaves of your ideals? What is true beauty to an African in America, is as vision to a blind man.
They told me that I was the product of hundreds of years of pain and suffering,That from the blood of my ancestors, I was given Eyes the color of mud,Hair like a sheep,The complexion of an ape,An inherent lust,A body that should be covered,A cultu
Do my eyes decieve me ?
or is it that we live in a destructive country ?
that's what I'm trying to figure out
how can our country get better with closed mouths ?
instead of perservering as one
I mean…
Is it too much for America to love black people like they love black Friday?
We ask, we ask, we ask
America is free
Free of equal rights that women have
but still cant decide what happens to our bodies
Freedom to vote
but get judged for who you did
Free to be the mixing pot
We the people
In order to form a more perfect Union:
Establish a system of injustice-
a system of slavery that will never be outlawed
Why
Why should I shut my mouth with subjects on moral and humane rights because
"I'm...too...young..."
"I...wouldn't...understand..."
You may be right
I don't understand
How can,
Say nothing,
Do not protest, let the bigotry cause no unrest.
People laugh off the the pain, like the insults some sort of jest.
Say nothing,
America oh, America.
A nation home to many.
America oh, America.
The foundations of your values have been revered by many.
Liberty is your creed, Freedom is what you bleed, yet many still feel agony.
Who gave you the right to use us at your disposal?
In the end,
you'll be alone---
like an empty vessel
stuck with resinating regret.
Are you aware that you're leading to your own self destruction?
Hello,
I’m not a coon or a savage
And I don’t live in the projects or eat chicken and watermelons for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
No, I don’t live on the “block” and sell dope.
America, The country of genocide, suicide, homicide
America, The country of proslavery, bravery, not savoury
America, The country of glory, history, territory
America, Oh, America, why did you fall from grace?
The Supreme Court has ruled that it is legal to discriminate against people with dreadlocs
"It's not a race thing" they said, "It just tends to get messy."
Heinous acts against others,
Welcome to America
All are free in this land
But if you are black
Equal rights you cannot demand.
Welcome to America
All are free in this land
But if you are Muslim
I know you heard me when I asked you to stop using that word
I know you heard me when I asked why you speak so hatefully
I know you heard me when I told you to stop acting like it was all my fault
We are the same within our hearts
But we are of different kinds.
We play different parts,
And have much different minds
How come they don’t see it.
The way I do, not the legs walking moving,
The body slinking, shaking,
The lips red as wine, parting, moving in time to the words….
This isn't my fight,I say with hidden hands balled into fistsReady to defend those which the comment was againstMy knuckles let go
Dr. King, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Langston Hughes the greats
All deriving from our ancestors shipped in crates
America you great land of opportunity
Our skin is not as white as snow
Does this make us worthless?
A lot of us grew up in single parent homes
Does this make us inadequate?
We commit the same crimes
But why do we only get the life sentences?
Hashtag, “Black lives matter.”
Trending, but then what?
Hashtag, “All lives matter.”
Seems pretty okay, but…
I find it quite ironic
As the election went on this year all the Caucasian students were buzzing on my campus
Being a young black women you could see the look of “concern” in their eyes as they passed me
there are peopleputting themselves in a box,afraid to step on anyone's toes,never seeing that those,same people have their own feetresting low upon the box,pushing them out to sea. So when i open my mouth,to speak my free,they turn around, hatefu
This is the story of those who ride the sun.
They end very old and start off very young.
They have kind eyes to see,
ears to listen,
and voices to sing.
Smashed windows
Town stores burned to the ground
Streets blocked
Cars as our stepstools
This is not peaceful
Ruined views
Torn down pews
Yelled, screamed, shouted your brother’s name
When you turn on the news, what's the first thing you see?
The Black man that got shot today or the White man on the murderous streak.
From conception,
we spend the next nine months
wrapped in a cocoon
of our mother's protection.
Our cells
come together to form
I watch and I hear but where do I start It seems like America is falling apart This land of the free this home of the brave Is killing it’s people and digging their grave We feel everyday when we turn on the news Another hashtag is trending anothe
Everyday i wake up
and cry
wondering why i'm still alive
i woke from sun up
to sun down
pulling a little fury thing
my master cals cotton
if i dont pull at least five hundred
Afraid of my black sisters and brothers since we're a few shades darker
Did you know we all scientifically originate from the Motherland, Africa ?
We are shot when we are compliant
We are shot when we are defiant
There are mothers crying
There are children dying
They want to keep us institutionalized
I know what the Germans done
You want a homemade boat? we can cruise on soundwaves
Good vibes are limited when you misbehave
Jumping in the pool it's our homemade wet n' wild
Look out onto Rollin hills while we smiled
Greg Suhr brought me
this pair of socks
which were machine knitted
with uniform precision,
and sporting the color blue.
Shot at, choked, and hung
All of the above
Brought about the young
Spreading hate, instead of love
Spat on and discriminated
I was raised to be proud, confident, to embrace full.
To ignore the mugs of the brighter skin, Living Melanin.
To wear my curly fro & deny any hands to touch for it was my crown.
"All lives matter," they respond,
as thousands of black and colored people across the country
protest and rage against the countless injustices
that have been brought upon black men and women
Poetry is therapeutic
I lower my pen to paper
And I don't have to pay one hundred-forty dollars for temporary peace of mind
Tears released
Breath finally caught
I am whole
It is memory
The bad
This is a cold world of ice and sorrow,
Wretched and lost, a search for survival.
Time does not pass under blankets of snow,
Nothing changes in this vicious cycle.
A caged songbird that can no longer sing,
What an interesting time to live in
Where what’s right is deemed wrong
Where freedom of decision is now disregarded and we are subjugated into having a forced position
Hopes and dreams,
That always seems,
Out of her reach.
Broken lives,
And stolen Dreams.
Two winged sky roamer,
Police…
Hope for quiet…
Someone calls in frightened…
Hoping the law will save the day…
Ten-four!
Mother…
Sends son for milk…
Halfway there silence breaks…
Dedicated to the family members and victims of the Orlando Tragedy
When the moon kisses the seas,
The oceans turn red.
When the nation mourns the lost,
Our hearts turn red.
Night falls…
I have a voice I have opinions
I am more than my sexuality
Than a novelty
Than my gender
Last night at a gay night club called Pulse
Our world lost 50 souls
People who had gone there to be free
A system plagued with innate discrimination,
is justified by the masses of the nation.
Mass incarceration of minorities,
shows genocide is above priorities.
And then what is it that we see?
The Race Game
By: Syreeta Morgan
The issue of race and racial equality seems to be trending
I saw a white man today, and he
Was pretty nice. He was one
Of the one’s that pitied us “Niggers”, you
Know that’s what they call us.
I bid sir, to tell me what can I do, to
Upon thee arrival of opening heated pearly gates,
Patiently I waited for another chance to make a cool escape.
The shadows and a violet pen provided me with a plain face,
Hate, violence
Fires, Riots
Fights, Never stay quiet
All caused by two words, Not Guilty
It's fair, it's unfair
People asking how can this be ?!
The pain is unbearable for most
We the People,who had a dream,and never told a lie.We who fought for what was right and waved our flag up high.Jolted from the embers of a trailblazer's fire and shot from the barrel of a musket.Shackled and chained and segregated we who rose abov
I am black,
but, I am an American,
yet, because of my color, you stab me in the back?
They tell me I speak too proper for a girl of my color,
and that I could be mistaken as white,
Pretty brown skin, girl you know those boys love you
They say you have a “fat ass” so you should show them all a little something
No need for modesty, just show your body, be sexy
She’s a person of color,
Who’s afraid to confront the police,
Asking herself why can’t there be peace.
Day and night she thinks about her brother,
What a year.
What a year it has been
At the start it looked promising, but then and only then
4 letters flipped the world upside down
I-S-I-S, what a horrible sound
All I Need
Is To Wake Up
And Not Be Afraid Anymore
To Live A Life of Happiness
Not A Life of Regrets or Sorrow
To Step Out on Pure and Unwavering Faith
And To Live Everyday Like It Is My Last
I did not ask for struggle,
I did not begin it.
But when it is presented,
I intend to win it.
No matter the uphill battle,
No matter the stricken tears.
At the end of every struggle,
Rest in tranquility because your sacrifices have planted seeds and born fruit beyond compare.
Thank you for your valiancy and inspiration.
Thank you for your altruism, stoutheartedness, leadership, and I have a Dream Speech
Martin didn't "die" for us.
You see, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
Unfortunately this heroic man was so hated.
Why?
Because he wanted equal rights?
What if Dr. King and others didn't fight?
I am Emmett Till.
I was beaten to death, so how dare you go through everyday life complaining that it's "pure hell".
I'd rather be locked up in a jail cell.
Or sitting in a classroom not knowing how to spell.
My dark skin isn't a sin.
Your perception of my obscure color is what you have within, and when I look at my reflection, I'm in love with my complexion.
I have lived for decades I have lived for yearsI am the image of the African American girl and her struggle.
In China, hospitals skip the fourth
and the fourteenth floor
because four in Mandarin Chinese
iss hi,
the same pronunciation
as the word for death.
Where will my world go?
I watch its framework fall,
but know not where it lands.
The vessel of wood carried my life upon it.
Dear Straight Girls
Stop wearing plaid
Take off that checkered flannel
Aand if I see you with those big “nerd” glasses on your face again I swear I will break them.
--------------------------------【英华教育】留学归国服务中心 -------------------------
Q微信858216918办理毕业证成绩单、留学回国人员证明.教育部教育部学历认证【诚招代理】
如果您是以下情况,我们都能竭诚为您解决实际问题:
1、在校期间,因各种原因未能顺利毕业,拿不到官方毕业证;
--------------------------------【英华教育】留学归国服务中心 -------------------------
Q微信858216918办理毕业证成绩单、留学回国人员证明.教育部教育部学历认证【诚招代理】
如果您是以下情况,我们都能竭诚为您解决实际问题:
1、在校期间,因各种原因未能顺利毕业,拿不到官方毕业证;
--------------------------------【英华教育】留学归国服务中心 -------------------------
Q微信858216918办理毕业证成绩单、留学回国人员证明.教育部教育部学历认证【诚招代理】
如果您是以下情况,我们都能竭诚为您解决实际问题:
1、在校期间,因各种原因未能顺利毕业,拿不到官方毕业证;
--------------------------------【英华教育】留学归国服务中心 -------------------------
Q微信858216918办理毕业证成绩单、留学回国人员证明.教育部教育部学历认证【诚招代理】
如果您是以下情况,我们都能竭诚为您解决实际问题:
1、在校期间,因各种原因未能顺利毕业,拿不到官方毕业证;
--------------------------------【英华教育】留学归国服务中心 -------------------------
Q微信858216918办理毕业证成绩单、留学回国人员证明.教育部教育部学历认证【诚招代理】
如果您是以下情况,我们都能竭诚为您解决实际问题:
1、在校期间,因各种原因未能顺利毕业,拿不到官方毕业证;
--------------------------------【英华教育】留学归国服务中心 -------------------------
Q微信858216918办理毕业证成绩单、留学回国人员证明.教育部教育部学历认证【诚招代理】
如果您是以下情况,我们都能竭诚为您解决实际问题:
1、在校期间,因各种原因未能顺利毕业,拿不到官方毕业证;
--------------------------------【英华教育】留学归国服务中心 -------------------------
Q微信858216918办理毕业证成绩单、留学回国人员证明.教育部教育部学历认证【诚招代理】
如果您是以下情况,我们都能竭诚为您解决实际问题:
1、在校期间,因各种原因未能顺利毕业,拿不到官方毕业证;
--------------------------------【英华教育】留学归国服务中心 -------------------------
Q微信858216918办理毕业证成绩单、留学回国人员证明.教育部教育部学历认证【诚招代理】
如果您是以下情况,我们都能竭诚为您解决实际问题:
1、在校期间,因各种原因未能顺利毕业,拿不到官方毕业证;
Cinnamon, Rosemary, Pepper, Nutmeg, Cloves, Aleppo Pepper, Ancho Powder, Cacao Powder, Carribean Spice
My blood Runs with the Crucifixtion of those Diamonds and Minerals you wanted.
Let them know that i said this
Let them know i do not fear them any more
Let them know i am ready to fight them.
Be him Igbo
Be him Yoruba
Be him Hausa.
Self demarcation
Is self deprivation
After all it takes a dream
To build up a nation
Hesitation and contemplation
It’s great to analyze
but why are you waiting
Why is there more hatred than love
Why do I not see help from above
Why are we viewed as despicable punks
Why do they only put us in cuffs?
Why do I see a racial divide
The dirty South gets drunk on nights.
Are we only made of sweet tea, shoot outs,
and bar fights?
She slumps to the ground and
hits the side of the old juke box -
Step into their shoes
Take a step, and a walk
For you shall learn how they
Could never talk
Those across the streets
Thought differently
To their defeat,
Once upon their time,
There lived an old witch.
She was old, and wrinkled,
White fuzz covered dark skinned-skull,
Colorful cloths wrapped her
As she walked her ways.
She helped the poor,
I stumble upon the shattered road
The cries of war engulf me
Debris, dust, smoke… where is our home?
Piercing gun shots resonate near me
I pledge allegiance
To the flag
I remember the day
My best friend said
“I think I might be gay”
You captured kings and warriors and now our bloodline fights back
You underestimated the mystery and power behind those of us who are black
You saw our strength and resilience and said “They’ll be fine to do our work”
World packed with cruel hate.
It’s written in their fate.
What can the people do?
The worst part—the revulsion isn’t new.
We want to see these black boys fly
Cops rather see these black boys die
Unarmed, non voilent, minding theirs
abird in the skyfell to die, yet a will to driveand mind on restfell into a nestgod blessed! a new kind of test-with feathers, my strengthhis renewal
We are groups of people
made to hate
because of who we love
not what we stand for.
Did no one listen to
your parents?
You treat others how you want to be treated
not
What are we doing?....What have we become?
We’re just gang banging…
Lampin’: Hanging out under a street-light, on gangsta turf
waitin’ for a Ghetto Star: A top street drug dealer
It angers me. It really makes my skin crawl. How people think they have the right to deny other people to express their love. I heard a joke once. It goes like this. A man walks into a Subway and orders his favorite sandwich.
Where a people fight for acceptance, one wanted to fight without his fists. He used his words to lead all in one philosophy: to sit amog the opression, you must not use violence.
You asked me
to draw
a line
between white and black.
White and black.
White and black?
What is that line?
Here is the list we started:
White is
Good.
Light.
Truth.
I want to live in a world without hate
Everyone who is muslim is not irate
If God is love then why are there religious wars?
The amount of fighting since ancient time soars
Society-society things never change.
Race against race, dangerous people like hatred.
Careless world, guns, girls guys violence-PAIN.
When will it ever be change?
Your hatred is unreasonable, unfathomable, and irrational.
So why continue to say that name in place of my own?
You are the NIGGER
The low-down and the dirty.
The hatred.
I, the student, seized on a night of cold,
Booked and found guilty, for reasons unknown.
Immediately, my freedom was sold,
Despite my friends' pleas, I was all alone.
Later, while I was brutally tested,
Questionin innocenceNeed tuh cleanse n replenish dis effed up conscience.Hoodie up, arizona n skittles in his pocketsSuspicionLife taken away for foolishness of self defense?
Adversity what does that word even mean
Does anyone know?
I think the last man to feel it
A Meaning LostWe were the beating of drums,
The beating of the sun against
The backs of our people.
We were the red of river banks,
The green of grass, the trees, the leaves.
We are a disjointed body,
crippled by their oppressive
strength;
they strive by walking
over us.
Our rights don't matter
until the november polls;
We shall overcome one day,
Are the words that the leaders use to say,
God Let us have justice is what they'd pray,
Please let the pain and suffering go away.
Now the people recite those words no longer,
I said I got to keep my head above water - James harden in OKC bring me off the clutch time in the 4th quarter - Its funny nowadays how people don’t want you to make - nothi
why is the media scary todayTwenty dudes got married and gaythe world viewed it as okayfor marriage i prayin our flesh we stay the blessed lamb we slayyou want to see my nigtmarestune in and turn on
I am an African, an African
taken from my homeland and
brought into a place where I am known as
being "inferior" Why was this happening?
Do I not shed blood and cry as any other
When it is between white and color it's all over the news,
But when its black against black it gets no views!
This is normal just like sinners behind pews.
How is the stench of dead boys on the streets nothing new?
Sometimes we forget that in this varied world
Among the mix of backgrounds
Ethnicities
Languages
Or whatever makes you stand out
There are people like me
Filling in the "White" box
America,
land of opportunity
land of the free
land of unity
and the lnd that holds the key.
we all know we're American,
But what does it mean ?
Does it mean we're all white?
You would think by now
Wait no, you should know by now I should leave
Leave it all
Wait, that just isn't right either
Can I ask a question?
I just did huh?
And there I go again
S-C-H-O-O-L
My brother
Make your legacy live in history
The past of segregation lingers onto our present communities,
And its comedy is somehow becoming our young brothers and sisters
you see..
We as a people are capable of so much
We must use each other as a clutch
We as a people must rise to the majestic heights
So we can fight this battle like a medieval knight
I speak for the silence and against the harassment
As I take you hand we will show the world
How marriage is as free as the wind
He said he had a dream
She said she wasn't going to move
He said I'm for truth no matter who tells it
They had a vision years beyond their time
One that wouldn't submit people of color to a life of hardship
She walks on through the crowd.
On through the hot air.
On through the booming of her fear.
She follows, head down, one by one.
Made of Steele
made to clink together
made to keep a race back
foever ? made to seprate
us and not bring us together.
There seems like there's no sunny
weather, cloudy skies and
Bulit up on a lie so how would
you expect us to survive ?!
Clenched with chains like
a beast who can not be tamed
Not knowing that we where the
First to be crowned king
all around the world is in havoc
death tolls are getting tragic
nobody wanna work together
standing out like the scarlett letter with
A
pain in my chest
I digress
this hate
emanates
Second Sunday of May my father brought my brother, mother, and I
to our favorite breakfast place to celebrate the holiday.
I was young, just five years old. My brother two years my elder.
Even prior to this movement, I have always hated those who seek equality.
I abhor the thought of becoming one with animals that are filthy.
Just why even bother fighting for their rights,
He was my age when he died,
a boy who would now never grow up.
I don't know what it's like
to grow up hated and feared
by simple minds and closed hearts.
I don't know what it's like
I chose to be spat on in public.I chose to be called names.Fag. Dyke. Sinner. Abomination. Devil worshiper.Mistake.I chose to be hated by the ones I loved.I chose to be hated by the ones I trusted.
I sit here, thinking heavy
My young brother, no intent of harming any
Walking with a hood on is that a threat?
But with his black skin many scream death
Skittles, tea
What harm could that be?
Black, white, red, yellow,
Gunshots at night, in a Harlem ghetto,
The frightening things that segregation brings,
Racial hate messages sting and hurt everything,
Lingering doubts even modern man pouts,
Negritude…
A conceptual ideology in the tenets of humanity
A construed solidarity in a common black identity
Abstruse in such arcane a concept?
The life of the innocent is taken by the sinner... They said "Black skin, wild hair, how could they not be barbaric? For these chains all men, now and future, will share it. No peace for man.
Rosa Parks
A strong figure
refusing to move.
Why discriminate?
She was the same
as us
as everyone.
Love all people
and all people
will love back.
There’s something called ignorance in the black community
It replaces the love, care and the unity
The power our race once possessed
Pretty girls dance across the room
A parade of blonde hair, red hair, dark hair, light hair
Sleek and shiny
Bouncy and fluid
The kind of hair I dream about
Girls bend and sway in the morning sun
Being gay?
They say it's a crime.
They say it's a birth defect.
They say it will change over time.
I want to know who "they" are.
I want to know what gives them this right.
Slaves, abuse, mistreatment, no love
But still our ancestors looked at the man above
Beatings, hard labor, being hurt like second nature
Working day in and day out all day long
Who I love should not define who
I am as a person.Why can you love her,
butI can’t?What evolutionary methods refuse to releaseme from this cycle.Where can I go for my rights
should not be a question.
Sides are picked, muskets raised
Grey and blue, wool blood stained
The Union must stay intact, but
Brother versus brother are being attacked
In the end, all people are free
What happening to the world we live in...
As we turn on the news, their goes a child killed by the offcials that are suppose to protect us.
We buy our sterotypes off of tv subconsciencely we feed our ignorance without a black face and watermelon red lips but with a pretty face and round ass we've become americas number one pupets our sistahs aunties and mothers have been degraded to o
The dream wasn’t to be accepted, but to be equal.I still dream not to see race, but to see people.We can’t imagine love with hearts full of hatredLove your enemies, even those who are racist.
Snap, Pop, Crack!
There goes an elbow with one firm grasp.
La la la watching those tears mixed in,
Is water, blood, and all the hope
plus determination flowing from that corpse
Asians can't drive, and Mexicans make trouble. You will get shot by a black man who will rob your home and steal your vehicle. All Mexican immigrants are illegal. Asians can't speak English to save their pathetic little lives.
A teenage girl cries in her bed
"You're going to hell," the message read.
Is it a sin to be in love?
What makes you think you're that much above?
Show me where in your holy book it reads
Look at me
Do you see?
Do you see me?
I look no different than thee
I am human too
No different than you
Making mistakes too
Human through and through
The rumbling of the drums to the
gathering of the clans are
where we began.
Mothers and fathers together as one
uplifting their precious child.
Culture, visions, and lives all destroyed
(poems goThere once was a time when freedom and equal rights were asked to ring
Then along came two men by the names of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King…
They were the voices for the voiceless and the fighters for the weak…
Who the hell made you queen?
You have a comment on everything
Never a smile, only a frown
All you do is tear us down
You only scream and yell
Making a cheerleader's life a living hell
There are some who’d like to think that love comes in two breeds:
Relevant and irrelevant.
To them, only as a word love is singular.
As an emotion, love comes in too many species,
In the beginning,
There was a God for all
A fierce parent
Loving and righteous.
But men bent him
In their own image-
A lily-white God with blond hair
Fair and beautiful
And biased.
The gym is my Tabernacle,
A place I long for, a place I seek.
A safe haven from all the daily disgust.
The gym is a war against my muscles, A place my sprit is freed,
But I love him.
Of course I do. I love him more than the world.
But that isn't real love. No. My love is just a phase.
A test of my parents will.
Because why would i love him? I'm only a boy.
BOOM!
Goes the sound of a bus backfiring
As it leaves a stop with no passengers
Once again
The bus driver silently laments to himself
And hopes the boycott will be over.
Shhhh! Do not you dare compare him to I!
For he was not born within a skin that does not comply.
I am beautiful, of this I have no doubt,
But this is a fact, not a way to stand out.
I watch the depot shrink as we begin
The sweat now starts to form behind my knees.
The vinyl seats make patterns on my skin.
I look outside and see the moving trees.
We're doing the Lord's word indie this bus
If I was straight I wouldn’t be writing this damn thing
If I was straight I wouldn’t need to hide my basic humans needs
If I was straight would you still dehumanize me?
Take away my rights and claim there “not meant to be”
Skin is nothing more than a covering for our bodies
Complete with different shades and degrees
Absolute black and white doesn't exist here
He didn't even know me.
he passed me by like a river's torrent
smoothly, he grumbled, "Nice shirt FAG!"
Days and days have went by
still here I stand in this cold night
telling you all about my misery
yes, for this will all stay in history
As our fathers and mothers fight for liberty
Days and days have went by
still here I stand in this cold night
telling you all about my miser
yes, for this will all stay in history
Statements that stay behind closed doors, they stay in the room
Hover above your head
Seep into your mind fall into your river of thoughts
Sink deep into your conscious
Straying off to your emotions
He says he's replacing the Confederate Flag on his desktop
With a picture of Me.
I proceed to wonder if I should explain the irony of this,
Or let him roll over comfortably in his quilted ignorance.
Fill my seams with lots of dreams
Like Martin Luther King did
Walk down avenues
No need to be in school, at least not on this special holiday
Because of that man
That man there, we can do near anything
I am a girl who loves a girl
And believes in the Bible too
There’s a fight in my head
It’s not a fight to the death
It’s a fight to realize who
Knows what it means to love.
Man shall not lay with man
Your skin ugh. So black so filthy, murky.
But did I ask you your opinion?
Your assurance that my skin is any less than what I'm assured it is?
Oh No!
I don't always know the right thing to say,
But I feel inclined to speak out anyway
To define the one thing that can never be understood
Is the real sin: rooting out love where it lay.
And we keep pressing on
Gazing off into space with her deep brown eyes
Pleading for someone to notice
All the sorrow she hides
Deep in her heart
Only knowing that tears are not enough
All her memory’s flow out of her mind
We who believe in freedom still can't rest,
Cause we who believe in freedom can not rest until it comes.
Like the earth beneath a popular tree, life is shaded.
The existence of knowledge stands firm and strong,
yet, some and many cease to acknowledge the light peeking through its leaves.
I am Too Blind in the light Too fresh, too hood, too...Ghetto
World uses me like a puppet; Geppeto
African Americans need to Stop, and think
We want to see the Intellectual abilities you can bring,
We are perpetually, habitually
tip-toeing through life
always struggling and grappling with
is this wrong or is this right?
They all force us to whisper
when our instinct is to cry,
to cry out at Injustice
The attachment of two souls
Waking up in the morning
Impressions in the mattress
Coffee in the hands and kids at the table
Marriage isn’t a requirement
To love
But you want it
You deserve it
Hey, you!
Me? Me who?
Me with the glasses?
Me who is short?
Me who is heavy?
Me with soft, clear skin?
Me with tea-streaked skin?
Me with milk-brown eyes?
Me with dark, vancant eyes?
It’s his in and her out.
He loves a boy, and knows
That should his love be shown
His own home would become
A place of disgrace
Claiming to never have known
The face of his heart.
I'm what?!?
Oh you say i'm weird
as in erie, different, or abnormal, right?
Does it bother you....
you know, that i'm not like you or your crew
Am i offending you?
Well sorry to hear that!
"Inspiration"
I laugh, cry and think
smile-I feel it now..
Inspiration here to play a role
Flipped on like the light switch of my soul.
We are all one
but we live as if divided
we share the same pain and shed blood for what we belive in
Yes we all have issues but let us not incorporate that into violence.
Dear Jordan Davis,
When you felt 8 foreign metals scratch its way through your chest,
did it drown out the music?
All I ever wanted was to be beautiful.
Like new mothers,
like flickering candles in dark rooms
like flowers pressed into books
like new shoes...
The Light
that comes when they finally see
a figment becoming reality.
The Shadows
that once existed
in the outskirts
of their mind,
resides in their hands.
The Inspiration
It seems like a dream,
I wasn't there, for something that changed life,
We worked and worked as a team,
We fought and we fight,
We live in a land,
supposedly free.
Good men died
for you and me.
WE can live our life,
to pursue our dream.
Unattainable to others
not for my brothers.
If you're gay, black, or anything else;
No surgery
Lost limbs
Give a leg
Then ask of him,
Restore my sight
With nothing to hide
Choose
Between
Hate or love
WHITE OR BLACK
Wrong or right
Parents or soul mate
Holding back or holding hands
Being ashamed or being proud
Seeing skin or seeing soul
I am not dark skin.
I am the sound of deep cognition.
I am the voice of thought-provoking composition.
So, if you feel like you are fiending just to stay and listen;
Intelligence used to be a virtue,
Ignorance used to hurt you,
But in the past few decades the roles have reversed . . . I though about rhyming but now it's a free-verse,
attacked, chained and forced on ships
brought to a land to face hardships
there is a light shining above us
illuminating our many shadeds of brown
unique souls and great minds that shaped
I'm known to be a dreamer,
It's my way of sanctuary
but surrounded by closed minds,
Made me less a believer
I am a dreamer, but darkness shrouds me
Storms my mind until my memory
Is washed away
Here I dissociate, alone in awe I am taught
I see what the silence has tried to show me all along
occasionally blinded by intent of the selfish sort
I can never truly understand until I learn to dissolve
Piercing eyes glare at unfamiliar faces
Awaiting rejection
So use to backs being turned, hearts being broken
There's rejection.
Unrevealed truths, broken promises
I watched a lady full of age
Walk slowly down the sidewalk
She walked as though there was pain in each step
And I admired her determination
She could have easily squeezed sympathy
From anyone that she meet
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
Pour her feet in emerald flames
Place her hands in ruby grains
They pulled his brain from the southern swamp
Clenched to a tree.
They poured their golden bleeds on his palms
The flares on his jeans sing to them.
Nigger, to me, sounds like nooses and hangings.
It sounds like, "Whites Only," and "No Coloreds Allowed."
It sounds like, "we shall overcome" marches -
like overcoming was the only thing my people knew how to do.
Industrial Revolution
Builds on her the loneliest right.
Liberty has occupation,
Though she's victim of Mans' old rite.
They call us blacks not only because of the color of our skin,
but because...once upon a time,
we were like shadows.
Black shadows that trailed behind white bodies.
Afraid, and hidden.
Her hair in neat braids, her frock a stainless white
Gazing at the wispy clouds that curl against a cerulean sky
She approaches the white picket fence and waves hello—
It is 1956.
They shuffle up the stairs
In a line like prisoners
Their heads hung low
As they walk in a single row.
“To the back of the bus,” he says.
But they already know,
The revolution was not televised.
It will not be found in a tweet or an updated status.
But do you know your status, the rights that our ancestors longed for, fought for and dreamed for?
A test
A simple test
God created man in his image
A creature filled with life
Blood flowing and
A heart beating
Each being unique
Outside and in
The beauty of humanity
Always new
Everything used to be so black and white
Suits that men wore, the color on a T.V. screen,
The photographs that took hours to print.
But so were the beliefs of our countrymen.
It was either black or white—no gray area.
At the beginning there was no love,
Only hate,
But from one man, a brave man,
Layed our society’s fate.
There was sadness and despair,
And enough hatred to kill,
Let’s Go Back!!
Let’s Go Back, back in time, where we began to rhyme
Singing hymns to kill times, of inequality,
let’s go back where we loved each other
while marching for justice
They say choose your battles carefully, but our side of the starting line was chosen for us. Pick by some biased hand in advance, with no perspective for the past or future. We were held hostage in the present with no escape but survival itself.
(Civil Rights make it possible for me to attend this school...thanks...
to go learn and make better life
to marry a red blue green or black wife
I don't know
Now I can see me and her
See him and her and them
She was Born to be Judged
Judged to be Born,
She inspired those of her color,
Those of her class,
Those of her gender,
To be something more,
To defy what people thought of her,
This poem IS Gay
And not just in a childish and perjorative way
Cuz in a world where life is counted by the days
Who's willing to spend one standing up for what America - portrays
After the storm comes the rainbow,
Vivacious colors splitting the grey.
After the clouds shines the sun,
Shining light through the tears of the sky.
Storms are alive, in you, in me, in the world.
It would’ve been an honor to be a Freedom Rider
To be able to fulfill my desire
To sacrifice my life for a change
For the exchange
Of a better tomorrow
I have the right to school
I have the right to live my way
You have no say
I have the right to speak
Thats my rule
To live everyday
I have rights
Who do you think you are
playing God and deciding our destinies
planting unnecessary scars
claiming our rights are but fantasies?
Daddy's best friend liked boys
My's friend Jeff had a boyfriend
And that was fine, I loved them both
My friends were equal
No color, no social class, or inequality
Just friends
Here we are
Here we stand
We are living out God's own plan
We are the children of the dream
I don't need another new year to start a change
I am a change
One man willing to stand up for his rights,
one woman willing to fight,
A man who has a dream for equality in the nation,
The woman on the bus encountering frustration,
A thirty-mile thick crystalline wall
Shrouding all sight like a bride’s lacy shawl
We chisel and chip at its translucent sides
Revealing, bit-by-bit, it slowly confides
The secret of perpetual motion
The school from which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. received his doctorate, Boston University, is, as its name implies, located in Boston, Massachusetts. This city is located in liberal New England.
(poems go Love, a feeling, a sentiment, a knowledge....
I love her.
Her scent. Her feel. Her touch.....
She awakens me, and frightens me, as she lies next to me.
My hand through her her hair.
I have many scars, most you can see.
Like the one on my shoulder or the one on my knee.
But the ones you can't see, hurt most of all.
You can't get one of them from just a fall.
But by seeing family crying,
Is a picture a picture if it's all just white?
It’s just a blank canvas, that isn't right,
Just sitting there, alone, without any life,
And it sure ain't worth no pretty price.
(Devin strolled in the house open the door to let in his buddies and the cold
“Hey nigga’ , this sandwhich grows mold.”
Devin replied quite bold,
“Nigga’ please, I bought it yesterday.”
I’m sitting in the front and looking back.
The driver yells,
Turning innocent faces to stone.
Soft graphite transformed into stoic onyx.
I see it.
But I stay seated and silent.
They rise and leave,
My splattered blood dries
over the newly cemented pavement
where my head collided,
after my back got soaked and bruised
from the fire hydrant
cause I'm fighting the tyrant
of segregation. You can crush
I am stricken with the paint of bigots,
Cast in the colors they throw on me.
I am mulatto, all coffee and cream.
But when I am looked at, not seen, but looked at,
It is their mission,
To gleefully condition,
Our fine nation,
To hate a station,
no lower than themselves.
Together as one we stand
The smell of equality is so sweet
Together as one we stand
Our thirst for freedom cannot be beat
One man had a dream
That dream asked us to put our preducies behind us
That one dream asked every person, balck or white to join hands and look past the obvious differences
The silence before a victory in equality parallels the silence after:
it is alighted by those who barter their carved flesh for candle wax,
Set afire for an enduring thread.
A strand that interweaves the disgraces of the
What’s the meaning of pursuit of happiness when I can barely exist
When I’m treated like a quarantine disease
When they’re waiting for the next headline to pronounce “New cure for the ‘Adam and Steve’ & the ‘Madam and Eve’”
I stand amid the encroaching walls that bind my soul to perish among the dull unknown of confinement.
I ain't done nothing to you
I ain't even looked at you funny
All I ever done is be me and all you ever done is
Hate me
The simple air of a whistle.
Clean outside air, sweet perfume, cigarette smoke
From the usual porch sitters
Outside Bryant’s grocery store.
Nana tells me,
‘White people pale ‘cause all they kindness been drained outta ‘em.’
Shushin’ her with the harshness of a kettle at boil,
Is Mama,
Scolding her for fibbin’ to me.
Grunting irritation,
My father will never understand the constant frustration
that runs through my mind when I think to chase him.
To run after the man who has my heart but it's an abomination
Why does the mockingbird sing?
Why does she lift her head to die?
Is it the color of her wings?
Or is it the passion in her cry?
Today is the day for change,
Eyes up, Signs high,
Voices loud,
Jim Crowe has no hold anymore,
Chains are crumbling,
This is a revolution,
We are more than 3/5 of a man,
We are human,
All men are created equal
despite of race, religion, or gender
This is what the nation was built on
and what we must continue to believe in
Birds have beautiful colors.
Their feathers of red and blue and golden yellow
ruffle together against the sky.
The words on the signs
and the threat of the whites
are what keep us out.
Stuck in a dilemma:
do we keep our heads down
and go on with our unfair lives
accepting what is reality,
Bloodshed, yelling and screaming in a world in which I took my stance
All I got was an undesirable glance
I didn't apologize for the need for equality
So I proceeded in my seat in a world shaken without harmony
Let me break into your thoughts,
I’m a mindbomb, ticking time bomb.
Seven years I wore the the veil
shielded myself and kept pale
news shunned like yesterday’s mail
happier than my previous trail
The harmonious step
Like Ants—Strong in Numbers
Like Tributaries Leading to a River
Starts with a trickle, Becomes a Flood
Overflow of Hope, Love, and Faith
A Faith in the Human Spirit
A Faith of Humanity
A boy sits alone in his closet.
Enmity splattered walls.
His heart, so open to love,
is beginning to wither and fall.
But what, I should think,
makes him live in these walls,
is a secret to me,
Speaking, Acting, Learning,
On misogyny and bigotry,
Stepping up and sharing stories,
Personal experiences and opinions,
Everyone is not equal,
We're still in a place of hate.
We live in a world that has been teeming with hate,
Our ancestors have endured much pain and hate,
Our ancestors have inflicted pain as well,
We live in a world, in which we have no appreciation,
I have lost my voice in the crowd of thousands
from the top of my lungs I screamed down from the mountains
my vocal cords ache from the shouting in the streets
chanting and yelling for the rights of my people
I guess I was half-expecting the sound of fingernails to fill the room,
but I decided to let myself drown in the silence
sink to the bottom
until looking up was my last option.
Bars, the social norm
Keeping us in, keeping them out
When will it end
This nasty game they’re playing?
But we wont back down, no
The blood fueling our bodies with oxygen
Is the same. We all feel the pain.
Under protection of our own,
government was created to dethrown.
As a people, we chose to vote.
"Majority rule!" the people quote.
Soon, people debated, hated and fell into moral confusion.
I am bound to my chain
Never to be set free
The state of my confinement is one that is definite
A constant reminder that ensures my inhibition
The bus is hot as it rolls, and with the number of bodies is
Sticky air and sweat-wet seats and the raw smell of humans.
We are the freedom riders, the
Beaten at bus stops and booed as we walk.
The cage is open
But not to free me.
To free me from the bonds
That once held my cellmate
Whom I expect now runs
Far away from the hate
She was a Rose
A beautiful, brown Rose
She stepped up on the bus of separation
She sat down, for our freedoms
She rode the mistreated waves of segregation
She quietly refused, for our people
I have a nightmare.
Twoscore and ten years ago, Mr. King helped revolutionize our country.
Equality for all, he said.
No black, no white, no yellow, no red.
Equality. Shades of gray given what they deserve.
Sweat and blood cradle it,
It’s the mothers old hands that
Wove its breath.
High above myself and earth,
I can see freedom slowly drifting
Across towering mountains and dark
Clouds.
Separate
Has never been
And never will be
Equal.
Paging through the textbooks of history and time
The white, clean pages
Have been bleached of any color.
Black history relegated
Blinking sweat from his eyes,
His heart is on the verge of defunct,
Light irises face his.
Wild with fear,
His stomach solidifies like rime.
Who are we,
Nothing but the minorities.
All you give us is blame for all the wrong you see.
You say we take your jobs,
You say we kill your children,
You say we are a disgrace to this country.
Wake me up,
when the days of suffering and pain are over.
Wake me up,
when I can walk amongst others with out recieving a cold shoulder.
Being different,
with my face, color, and shape.
Being different,
I don’t mean to discredit them
We give credit where credit is due
But there is much more to do
This is not just a race
This is a relay
How proud I am.
It shapes me
In more ways than I'm fully aware;
To know my Grandmother
Marched.
Among thousands,
In a tide of dark skin.
The only white woman;
The only white skin.
The world is cold
The unknown cuss at the unknown
While heads get blown
Summoning all my people, we discuss the harms created by Obama's throne
The change still isn't shown
I'm torn between college
"Freedom for women!" they shout
These feminists few
But how can they not see that she's a feminist, too?
So many spaces are unsafe
black children are shot
little girls are raped
young women are beaten
Who Are We?
We build our own lives and souls
We are unique and separate
But how do we think for ourselves
When society guides us
This is me, this is who I am. This is my life, this is my business. I respect you, and I respect your choices.
Respect mine.
Blind in the eyes of god is the color of our skin
And who said you were in charge of deciding where I eat, drink, watch a movie, sit on a bus?
You think we’re dif-fer-rent but we’re all-the-same
There is a path just found behind the school
Rumors say what happened there was very, very cruel
I go to see the famous place
And find footsteps at the base
I follow it and hear a crack
One.
You mock me, shame me, spit on me;
You deny my humanity and curse me.
You cannot see past my dark hue.
Two.
You mock Him who made me
By burning that cross on my lawn.
How would you feel walking down the street?
Minding your own business just being a teen
When a group of people behind you come to attack
Only because in their eyes you’re a “fag”
African Americans rallied for their rights
African Americans put up a fight
Discrimination was all around
No nice words between races were found
I am blessed
To have been born
Inside a place
Previously torn
But now repaired
With the thinnest thread
I remember this
As I go to bed
What they were called…
Negroes. Stupid. Ignorant. Less-than. Inadequate. Niggers.
What they really were…
Citizens. People. Mothers. Children. Husbands. Workers. Human-beings.
What they endured…
Represent
The palm of my hands is the palm of yours
Represent
They represent these United State shores
Comes the tall ‘n mighty stovepipe hat
One of the world’s greatest diplomat
A month after I was born, in 1955,
Mother told me
Of the beginning of the bus boycott
Because a woman of color
Refused to give up her seat
To a white man.
And that was the year
Inside it controls.
Inside rage.
Inside pain.
Inside bursts of tears.
Silence.
It hides in the chaos-filled voices that live in life.
See the girl who sits and cries.
accusations against innocents
crime against the colored
fear, disgust, seclusion
we take one step forward
little by little
were pushed two steps back
continue to push
continue to fight
George Wallace and Rosa Parks,
Light is light, and dark is dark.
Each coexisted in the creation day,
But, oh, how far we seem to stray;
Why must the differences now be so stark?
We will not be silenced, the silence is broken by the symbolism within the signs we raise and the hymns we quietly hum.
Black or white,
colors fade to gray,
we stand together,
United as one,
nothing can break determination,
no one can stop our stride,
equality is one small step,
This White American conscious
superior, benevolent, controlling our future
White heart, white mind, white hands
shape us, for better or worse
How can we not be flawed?
Two little ones hand in hand running
In the bright golden morning over Washington.
Their counterparts dancing in the Pool of Reflection
They were leaping and wheeling in the calm morning sun.
I stand for the people who walked down the street for equality.
Dr. King said it best in his “I Have a Dream” speech.
I stand for the kids who were pushed to the back of bus
Abraham Lincoln was the author of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 16th president of the United States
Martin Luther King Jr was an inspiration and the leader of the civil rights movement
The Civil War is 19th century news
Only talk about it in history when my brain is on a cruise
See the Civil Rights Movement ended years ago
And there’s just no more desire to know
Luke
and Emily
and Zoe and John,
and Josh and Mira and Rabia,
and Jane, Rose, Mary, Helen and Radha,
and Jyoti, Michelle, Cait, and Brittany,
and Tyrone and Jenny and Lalainee,
and Matt and Ellie,
Well, it seems we have a bit of a problem
We've stuck ourselves in the exact same situation
That we put ourselves in 50 years ago
It took until 1967 for our entire country to come to our senses
If it wasn't for the magic
when this universe was born-
the gravity that held it down
the sun that kept it warm
Racism why is it even here
all it does is bring us tears
Whatever happen to a world of peace
its time we bring a new life lease
We stand in unity to raise hope
so that we may live in a place of harmony
Isn't it ironic that the same person responsible for bringing you into this world had to fight years of oppression in order to have a say in your future?
We Stand as One
Walking the streets to feel complete
No more segregation
We have now formed a whole nation
With a man that had a dream
That lead the movement to be free
We stand as one.
Flawless sun kissed skin
In infinite shades of brown.
Beauty Sculpted by God
Crafted in his favor.
Did the end of inequality start in Vermont in 1777 or
Did it start in at the end of the first month in 1865. Can we
put a date to the day when people realized civil disobedience was
Black boy
(Hook)
Last night
Night before
24 robbers at my door
I got up and let em in
Hit em in the head with a rolling pin
I tack a portrait of you to the classroom wall
--You--
Gorgeously lit in the the frame of a window
Appear in the grays and blacks and whites of the photograph
Peering questioningly at all who view You.
So is that who I am?
To be stereotyped just from my interest.
Is that who I am?
The one who's labeled just for being me.
Rosa Parks. Malcolm X. Dr. King. Jesse Jackson. Mamie Mobley.
Tears shed, blood spilled, injustice fought.
But for what?
I look at my arm and see glowing amber skin
Bright green eyes, curvy figure, long hair and thin lips
Anyone can see that I am mixed within
It is the year 1896,
And a black child born
In rural Louisiana
Sometime in 1865
Has just had her
Thirty-first birthday.
She should be happy--
Her newborn babe
Is healthy and although
Scenes are shooting down
a block of neighborhood
A moving busy streets
Acts are striked every passing
hours of streaming light
-some acts are cut out and some kept
Martin Luther King Junior had a dream
For all people to be treated fair
In order to rid the world of despair
It was a part of the grander scheme
To fill the world with utter esteem
I'm glad that we're diverse, with all these different traces.
I look around my class, and I see different faces.
I walk around the school, and there are different races.
If not for MLK then all this would not be.
A black panther
Hides in the
Concrete jungle.
The water
Washes away
The dirt, the blood,
And the words.
But water can't
Wash away the pain.
There goes that ribbon floating through the air. Her dress flowing in the breeze. She's curious, she wants to go, no violence does she see. "No, my child, you must stay here. For surely that's not for you.
To sit back and watch
That is not how I do it
I stand up and say aloud
I am who I am
A gay man
I do not hide anymore
I do not let words define who I am
I stand amongst the crowd
To sit back and watch
That is not how I do it
I stand up and say aloud
I am who I am
A gay man
I do not hide anymore
I do not let words define who I am
I stand amongst the crowd
Sitting in a seat
not accepting defeat
Rosa Parks took a stand
Speaking for the press
and being laid to rest
Martin Luther King Jr. paid the ultimate price
They want to badmind me because I’m a sodomite
Everyone else, they try to backbite
Creeping up, out of the light
I will not fight with guns or dynamite.
Did the movement really end?
The feelings, tensions, all amend?
Or does separation still exist?
Hatred and doubt with a twist?
The current world presents ignorance,
Prevalent distrust, shouting for guidance.
Did the movement really end?
The feelings, tensions, all amend?
Or does separation still exist?
Hatred and doubt with a twist?
The current world presents ignorance,
Prevalent distrust, shouting for guidance.
We washed upon the shores
And traveled in rivulets through the veins of a nation.
We filled her cracks and hollows
And saturated what was parched and wanting.
August 23rd, 1963
Sweat dripping on the late summer afternoon
250,000 people of all color
United, as one
Witnessing the new beginning
Walking together
Without facebook,
and internet
People
A head, a heart, a body, a soul
Working, breathing, loving, hating
Brothers and sisters
Created as equals
With only small differences
We live, we love,
We take part in others lives
The bus windows lets me stare
at all those people that give no care.
Why should I stand when I pay the same fare?
We live here too, it's not your lair.
Brave hands of all shape, color, age, and size
intertwine to form links of hope and light.
Thousands saying, “Brother, sister, RISE, RISE!
Stand for equality and join the fight!”
But instead of easy victory,
With silence, we took our beating, harsh cracks and whips replaced with slurs and snide remarks.
We stand in protest, holding hands in unity while they their voices carry-- sharp barks.
When you see a rainbow after a storm
You can’t escape it
It illuminates there in the sky for all to see
Each color together in perfect harmony
Now what would a rainbow be
I sit at your table and order a shake
I am not hungry for anything,
save justice.
My stomach aches for an acknowledgement
of my humanity
an ounce of compassion
Here is a man
Proud and strong
black
Here is the Law
Strict and harsh
White
Here is the school
Whites only
Fair
Here is Oliver Brown
Stop this
Please
I am an African American, Truth Be Told. Riding in a car in a nice neighborhood on my way home, Truth Be Told. Stopped, harassed, frightened by the local police because I was in a "suspicous" car, Truth Be Told.
Crowding the streets
Boycotting the bus
Any action that could draw attention to us
We will do it rushed
To try and budge out of this rut
Ever since I came out the womb,
they said it was power to the people
But what power do you have
when you aren't allowed to speak back when being speaked to
We've spoken, the world has been broken
What it was like,
to not be that of a white.
The pain, humiliation and suffering
and still ending up with nothing but the blaming.
To be that of a different color,
like we had some kind of special armor
Steinmen, Rosa, MLK
The preachers and poets, championing a new era
Heroes far beyond their years
Instilled with wisdom
They cried blood and sweat and tears and pain
And still they kept up the fight
At first just yelling.
Spiteful cries,
Words like cleavers,
Got under her fingernails,
and the mahogany skin on her cheeks.
And then the stones came,
an ambush,
penetrating deeper
Free at last, free at last!
Thank God almighty, we are free at last!
That’s what I want to say
But it’s not the truth
I mean the whole truth
Civil Rights
More than Dr. King
Rosa Parks
Malcolm X
African American did not have rights
All of them suffered from the lies
Until Martin Luther king Jr wasn't afraid of heights
He stood up and put his foot down on there civil rights.
The story of then,
The story of now,
and then the story yet to be unveiled:
Tap-tap. Tap-tap. Tap-tap.
Yes I am angry. But you wouldn't know.
Staring down at the floor, how could anyone tell?
I clench my fists. Tap my foot.
I smile. I say "yes, sir" and "yes, ma'am."
What did they fight for, Those brave souls marching in the streets?
They wanted equality and justice, These two freedoms guaranteed.
Facing power and gunfire during their fight
Let's think a minute
about the things
that
won't ever leave:
life
yourself
your right to happiness
If it's not good, it's bad,
and
if it's not right, it's wrong.
One heart, one mind
All of our fates, intertwined
Campaigns, rallies all for one cause
Because we as a nation, belong under God
Who made man in his own image
Gave us the power to make our decisions
It is 1960 and there are two drinking fountains.
Colored on the left, white on the right.
A young black girl shuffles her feet forward slowly in line.
They drag along the dirt and make lines in the ground.
I am pale as the moon in a sky of darkness
White against the shadows of the night
His skin is dark like a moonless sky
But his spirit is forever bright
Freedom IS costly
Costly?
The lives that were Volunteered,
made freedom costly
The lives that were damaged beyond Repair,
made freedom costly
The urge to hold the family Dear,
made freedom costly
When all we could see was black and white
those memories we all hold onto so tight
for those people that nothing could ever go right
you're struggles were worth it
IN THE 1960’S WE HAD OUR SAY
BUT DID WE REALLY PAVE THE WAY?
WHO ARE YOU?
BLACK OR WHITE?
CAN WE PASS THROUGH THE NIGHT?
IS IT REALLY OUR RIGHT!
WHO ARE THOSE MEN THAT RIDE THROUGH THE NIGHT?
They march and march, but not without a reason.
With no guns or knives, but they're still accused of treason.
Signs in their hands, begging for a change.
Visions in their heads of better days.
My Brother and I will fight.
By: J.A. Palluconi
I see through his eyes and into his soul.
I then look at mine.
I hear his cry for what’s right and for what’s been lost.
I then hear mine.
All men are equal,
Easier said than done.
Always thinking you’re just the same as everyone else,
Then being told you’re different.
Nobody gone hold me down
I am a man and constantly getting put down
In this world I am surrounded by hate
You take one look at me and discriminate
Paying me the lowest of the lows
Hands planted on her lap, looking at the wrinkles
Reminds her of the days she spent on her knees
Watching the houses and the trees
Looking so young but feeling so old
She does her daily do’s
Stirring and pouring
Standing alone on the corner
Listening, waiting, hoping
The message, loud and clear
But everyone else refuses to hear
All created equal they claim
But their actions don’t match the words they say
I am not just a number for you to process
I have feelings.
Nothing you say can change how I feel.
Just because you think you can shut me up with
words
hate
violence
secrets
Why did they do it?
What was truly in their hearts?
Why did it become the norm?
Many questions still linger about “why”
Why any man would discriminate another
Why one man couldn’t be equal to another
It was on an icy morning when
I hurried back inside --
To grab my coat and money --
Then I scurried back outside.
Why you so surprised?
You thought change was gonna come
But let me explain something to you
History repeats itself
And it’s just a matter of time
Before you’re back in the fields.
Why am I so different?
Confused by the color of my skin, I am ashamed.
Though He says we should love everyone, but one does not love me.
I am in pain.
It is said to "not judge a book by its cover",
Mama's advice.
Yet I am judged.
Justified by society
and immense disparity.
Every color in every nation
Let me enlighten you my friends
And share some inspiration
Opression on these streets were'nt built to last
Not every single person had the mind to grasp
Who are they to judge me?
Who are they to conspire against me?
The KKK, no shame,
despising me and laughing in my face.
Many have forgot what happened
Going day to day living like nothing ever happened
Failing to remember what sacrifices where made
So that we could use the same fountain as someone of different pigment
I had a dream
Where a world was free
It never mattered who you are
but what you will become
I am fighting for a dream
where I can be free
It doesn't matter who I am
Just what I want to become
Martin Luther King had a dream
For his people to be freed
To be able to walk into any place
And be looked at beyond just race
It wasn't easy but it was worth the chase
Setting the groundwork for every other race
I walked miles to school every morning, past the closed doors of the all-white school.
Dirt clouds ruined my clothes and my shoes became worn and my hair mangled.
Slavery is equal
Revenge is justice
Life or death
Where’s our breath
We run on feet
We curse with tongues
Hateful words we spray
Vengeance we play
Not long ago
were the days of the Divide
of unconscionable prejudice
and senseless hate.
The buildings echo with the chant of our drums
The voice of our people, the cries of our sons
And the buildings are home to us, through thick and thin
And decades, scores, centuries in
Civil Rights, an act to be free
i look to my left i look to my right all around segregation i see
Disrespect, treated like nothing
Segregation, separated & unequal
Years ago a flame was lit,
a world divided, all people split.
Moves were made by those daring few,
some from bus seats, some from a pew.
A line that divided was intentionally crossed,
You're a strong young woman. You know you are.
He's just some jerk in class that always has to have the last say.
But there's something about his wit and attitude that you like.
You know it's dangerous.
DISCRIMINATION, that is a word that sliced deep into the hearts of many, pouring out the blood flow of confusion and a sense of deception. Just because my skin is brown and hers right beside me is white, we're different?
Looking down from heaven the angels sing
Black men, white men let freedom ring
From the north to the south to the east to the west
To the rich to the poor to the wise to the blessed
You know what’s hard about civil rights?
I’m the white male juvenile discussing it
Can you put that picture together?
I’m blamed for the mistakes of people I never knew
I get it
Those eyes we see
We walk down the isle
All I can have is a simple smile
I know all the hostility we create
It does no matter
I still have her
All LGBTYQ
We All Love You.
I was raised to hate the black man,
To spit as he passed me in the street.
I was raised to hate his wife, too,
The woman I never thought to meet.
For hundreds of years the black man has been crying
with inner tears, striped from his manly dignity and
identity, his self love has been ripped.
Who should define my race?
Is it the man who auctions my ancestor from a stand
and then lynch’s them on poisoned land.
Who should define my race?
Is it the person who label’s us because of the color of
our face.
The Black man stands strong on the slave block being
ridiculed and torched similar to King Jesus.
Living in the forlorn world of slavery, being
discriminated against by some of the white
race- due to my colored face.
Because of the pigment of my skin, they do not see me
Since I am "different", I am separated
And although they give many reasons
I know that it is not because of
My hair, or the way I dress, but
Yell at me, throw stuff at me
I am allowed here
Don't point over there
Just because a word separates us
We are the same
I was wondering if I could hold your hand,
take you back to when they said I can't.
Can I show you what my people have been through?
Can I take you to a place I feel I've been to?
Or would you rather not see,
Like crayons are only colors our skin is too.
We should all be equal shades to the human sight,
but fighting over colors is a destructive thing to do.
(something I never envisaged in a sticky Catholic school classroom
of stifled Central Illinois,
tracing the hate contorted face of Hazel Bryan with my finger,
on page 157 of my “The Americans” textbook and thinking,
The sun began to set as little Johnny trudged on
three hours ago he found out that his mother was gone.
Dead by water maybe dog or cane
but all johnny knew is they didnt even know her name.
Extra!
A boy yells from the sidewalk
Handing out factual ink
In exchange for a dime.
Extra!
"Black Man Sent to Prison."
Intellectuals are confused.
He committed no crime.
Extra!
Hit the mirror - watch it shatter
Not liking what you see
Blood running down your arm
Oozing like your broken heart
-
Empty inside - no friends outside
Why even bother trying
Roses are Red Violets are blue Martain Luther King lead a march on Washington and changed civil rights forever and so can you.
Executive Order for no order,
Was a citizen now, an enemy
all after a day that lives in infamy,
Hawaii, California, West Coast, no longer.
so called just desserts, in the desert
Civil rights...
Civil rights?
Civil rights, what is this?
When people say civil rights
Do they know what it means?
Do they know-it's the fight, strife, sacrifice
For
Equality?
When Obama won they said it’s over. He won. He’s in.
I say no. One triumph does not erase past sin.
Rain
Oh, temporal rain, why must your cloud our days and future so far from near
is it hatred this unending vicissitude of yours I fear
First you start, and then you stop
plip plop plip plop
We live in a place
Filled with promises
That are disgraced
Where some are privileged
and others oppressed
While our ignorance continues
This disgrace
Land of equality
Bull shit I say
Come on down and have a Coke for a bit
Let me tell you a story here as you sit:
A story of courage and of changing the world
Just by not listening to another man’s word.
The pen has hit the paper, the paper has been passed saying in the United States of America, slavery no longer lasts.
My Bones Ache
My Hairs Grey
My Pride is Gone
Can I Rest Now?
You Ask For My Seat
I Say No
My Hands Are Cuffed
Can I Rest Now?
We fight For Whats Right
Boycotting Transportation
When February rolls around, I think of all of them.
The brave strong men and women, who fought for my freedom.
Not just Martin and Rosa, Little Rock too,
But all those unsung heroes, just like me and you.
As we are black ,
we tend to be underestimated
as we fought for our rights they couldn't hold us back
Our forefathers bled for us.
They took the pain of being
different away.
They fought against the
stubborn who would never
allow black people to have
rights.
They say we are equal.
Why the bullying?
Do you think it's fun?
Is it satisfying?
The way you treat them?
They say we are equal.
We take for granted the freedoms we have
The biggest freedom of all to some
Are civil rights and liberty
African Americans will stand on my behalf.
We often do not look back at the past as if we were there
Who gave you the right to take away mine?
Who gave you the right to tell me where to sit
To eat
To go to the bathroom
And even drink some water
Can you imagine what it's like to struggle?
To be confined to a suffocating bubble.
To not be able to live peacefully and equally with man
Or be condemned because of your love of man.
We are taught that we are one.
Holding hands
is not an easy thing to do.
It’s nerve-racking for the timid,
and even more so for the different.
They say I’ve got dirty tears,
The ones that run down my face are not the same,
The blood I bleed is much too dark
My bruises far too faint,
And I’ve got dirty tears
Don’t get me started about my skin
This sistah would like to say
That finally Revolution is on its way
Dig, my People?
Just as the "New Negro" replaced the "Coloreds"
Black is replacing the "New Negro"
Shoot,
Sweltering day
Solution: ice cream
Fell into unwanted trouble
Pain splattering across my back
Anger biting my arm
I hear laughing
Nothing is funny
My rights are my rights/ got infinite time to put up a fight/ going through the system/ listen to your mther respect your father/ dont speak out/ dont stand tall/ fit the mold of the kid that will work till they get to old/ my dream job unattain
Across the Internet
Far and wide,
There are many flame wars
You can find
About this topic
(So taboo!)
Same-sex "marriage,"
And "unions," too.
The pain they felt
I cannot imagine
They fought for rights
With such great passion
They fought for right
With all their strength
They fought to be equal
To fight this hate
The fight for rights
The pain they felt
I cannot imagine
They fought for rights
With such great passion
They fought for right
With all their strength
They fought to be equal
To fight this hate
The fight for rights
It isn't fair.
It shouldn't matter what color
your skin or hair.
It's a type of insanity,
a crime against humanity.
They stand tall,
They stand proud,
Sadly they fall,
Within a big crowd,
On that day in ’65,
In that month of March,
We watch as some die,
In the midst of a march
If that mysterious man of old awoke
What tales would he tell?
If that mysterious man of old awoke
What praise would he sell?
Growing up, all I ever heard was how the "white man" would keep us down.
How all they ever wanted to do was see me frown.
How I was suppose to accept this as life truth
and never enjoy the fruits of my youth.
Yesterday African Americans didn't have rights
Yesterday a white man standing up for a black man was wrong
Yesterday slaves were shipped across a ocean of pain
only to be greeted by a lifetime of suffering
I left the Home, a shabby lumbering shack,
Taking only the clothes on my back
And the chime of Symmetrical thoughts,
And walking with Ambitious steps,
Trampling the Dirty paths, and
In a time of hardship,
Many fear the fight,
Many face the fight,
Going day by day struggling,
Many face the fight,
Trying to ignore the ignorant people,
Many face the fight,
I love my civil rights,
It helps to keep state laws tight.
The 13, 14, and 15th amendment,
How dare you try to suspend it!
It protected my heritage race,
Guaranteed freedom in any place
Behold an August day
a flock of black ravens
flew their way
to freedom.
What else is in the air?
A flock of white falcons
flying in pairs
with the ravens.
How do you describe my skin? Do you only describe me as light skinned? Do you not see the pain and scars that are visible to the surface? I know I'm not perfect... I'm different My skin is my shield hiding all the, pain, sorrow, the quilt?
A whistle to myself,
I whistled a song,
A song about a woman,
frightened by the black night,
frightened by what she don't understand,
she calls upon the daylight,
and then it comes,
Many a man has lived that has given his life for another.
Not many a person, though, who has changed the world forever.
whispering wind will pass
the booming thunder will overpass
your voice will shutter and ever-last
but i wonder who will hear it
make souls shiver at your voice
to hear the goodness of men
Through my eyes, I see warriors, fighting for battles in unity.
Fighting for color, fighting for peace, and for rightful humanity.
No guns, no knives, just armed with souls that weep for equality;
This is the public, right?
Than why shall I be set aside.
This is wrong, we will fight!
We just want to eat.
We all need to care.
So here is where we’ll sit,
Until we’re treated fair.
The weight of history
is what we carry everyday.
Like ankle weights that shackle us to an antiquity we never lived.
Past
Unlived shared experiences that we know all too well.
Sometimes we go through tough times
To expose peoples true sides
Sometimes we go through calamity
To bring together two or three
to love and forgive
To inspire and change
And move past the here and now
Shouts in the streets again
My pulse wakes from its slumber
With all risings, it says "amen"
Oh Lord, just let me get home to feed my kids
Can you hear them
as they sing?
The whispers of the wind?
Can't you hear them,
And their song?
Wanting him again?
They seek the one,
The truth he brought,
The truth of which we've lost.
How do I repay
the deeds done by
the civil rights leaders
of the bonded past?
How do I shine light
on the dull, average people
who became heroes
by taking a chance?
Strength isn’t always about who has the largest biceps,
The thickest calves,
The most powerful triceps.
Strength isn’t always about who can lift the most,
Who can throw the farthest,
Whose won fights to boast.
I felt connection there,
my yellow skin flashing in stark contrast with
the black in my right hand,
the white in my left.
There is a life. A life of a new age in which all men are free. I never dreamed that I would see this day, ho how my soul looks back in wonder. Our Ancestors, who bore the strife and the hardships of this life, they call to us.
Darkness was all that was there
Black, the color of a rising movement
Hate, the feeling that overflowed the nation
White, actions patterned with violence
Hope, fuel for peaceful end to hate
Darkness was all that was there
Black, the color of a rising movement
Hate, the feeling that overflowed the nation
White, actions patterned with violence
Hope, fuel for peaceful end to hate
From the beginning of time we have been judged by the color of our skin.
Not caring for what was within.
People have told us for years we are not wanted here, but what makes them think we had a choice?
Can a nation divided, come together to undo what’s been done?
Can we go back to where it all begun?
This time, discrimination has been overdone.
Having the rights stripped from each one.
Color shouldn't matter,
There once was a man who said, "I have a dream."
This man's dream was to be more than what he seem.
To not be classified simply by color, but to be equal by each other.
I AM,
Somebody.
Initiating the vigorous montage of syllables sliding down our tongues.
corruptedly speaking
our words of passion
and love of grace.
Bullets of sweat trailing down the shell, we can not change
Lost soul
Lost faces
One Color
Lost Races
Here but not in existence, just traces
Draws warnings on these spaces
Knows but doesn't feel
Wounded but never healed
Eyes open or close they see
We as humans, only asked to act upon our gift of living
Throughout the abuse and torture
We still find in our hearts, the spirit of forgiving
Watching our people experience genocide
Contemplating suicide
first foot, second foot march.
here and there everywhere just march.
to get where we half way are today they had to march.
to get where we want to be tomorrow and never be sorrow we have to march.
This year, paper showed what we really are to everyone; equal.
Racial discrimination banned at work.
Free to vote wherever we want.
The south cannot exclude us anymore,
Or so we think.
We may be met in 1965,
I love your brown skin
I can't wait to see you again
Again to see your brown skin
Marred by the stormy weather discrimination
Oh you know I love your brown skin
Some will call you a yellow bone,
Why is strife so memorable?
It seems our struggles are painted on our wings
As we fly to the destination of our dreams
We can remember the murky water
Traveled in and the time that clarity evened
The breath that must withstand the agony of birth,
as an innocent child enters the world,
also is the air that cares for the stern man,
who pays her no mind.
Her careful hands cradle the baby bird,
People being treated unfair,
Being judged for their race,
For racism is cruel,
This is why we now have Civil Rights,
Freedom for religion,
Freedom of speech,
This is why we have laws,
There's no one keeping you down
he says
because the President is Black
You don't need a scholarship
for your melanin
because the President is Black
Started as a vision of a free nation
then into a life of domination,
life as I knew it was about race
and the creators are just playing a game.
I see the photograph: you -- black, beaming, full of bravado
off to fight a war on German soil, not of your own making
the light is incandescent, against the barracks in the company
A century before,
Not quite a distant enough memory
brother fought brother
on an all too familiar soil.
Blindfolded
I am led to the asphalt
And blindfolded I stand
Hoping these men
Will pave the way
Black and white
White and black
Ying and yang
Colors that make this world bright
Why should color of skin matter
When trying to achieve rights?
Nonviolence.
The arrogant scoff and say to themselves as they rub their knuckles
“What a sissy notion. What a waste of time.”
Leafing through a history book, the pupils dilate
The Bible reads
"All Men Are Created Equal"
So why do you detest me so?
My heart beats
My brain thinks
I have emotions
Just like you.
Why do you treat me so differently?
I see on TV
Why does skin color matter?
We are people, arent we?
Black brown or white
We differ but its alright
Chains chafe my skin
My blood mixes with the sweat upon my back
Both rivulets running down and racing to the dry dirt
My burden affixed upon my shoulders
One mind,
Same heart,
Why are we blind
to see that,
But yet quick to see color,
Black, White, Orange, Green, Red,
We all bleed red.
Pain experienced,
Violence involved,
Tragic heartbreak.
"After working all day.."
Tired, i bet,
All day had she worked, worked up a darn good sweat,
Oh Lord, this woman said no.
My mama tells me they don't belong
They're different
Foreign
Disgusting.
My mama tells me I can't share
Anything.
I'll get sick.
They are beneath us.
Imagine this life
Divided by segregation
No equality
No independance
A life not worth living in
Ruled by skin color
E - Everyone is loved in God's eyes.
Q - Quietness about this issue is not needed.
U - Understand how important it is to stand up.
A - Anticipation for a better future.
L - Let people know what you stand for.
Faces dark and faces light,
Hues so varied shining bright.
Different colors God did paint,
Beauty marked on every face.
He decreed that all should love,
Welcome, embrace, never shove,
Cradled by life, mind so naive
Fierce within, yet shackled by body.
A voice so strong, a will so powerful,
Humanity's gift so humble yet so. Very striking.
Ghouls gaze upon onyx skin and fall behind deviled eyes.
Those who wrote the law
full of special holes
riddled with exceptions
Their money flows
their hands reach
They claim power
but natural rights they cannot bend.
This inherent power
You look inside the bus
You find a sea of people
Much like an ocean
Both filled with life
Colors are scattered about
As people move around
Much like a rainbow
Both vibrant and beautiful
Look around you,
Do you see
All those wandering souls just waiting to be freed?
The boy watching the popular girl, too scared to approach,
Lest he be tormented for wanting to be close.
Fear
Filled within their hearts
Individuality, discouraged by the Xeroxes
Adversity, scorned
Change, frightening
The Unique
With an appetite
For speech
For Identity
For Recognition
Life is peachy, but its's got a little fuzz
the inside is sweet but there's no hidding what's above
pick it up, set it back down, show it no love
Looking only at the surface, not what it consist of
Civil rights are right, right?
Yes, indeed they are right,
because it say so in the phrase,
don't have an eyebrow to raise,
because civil rights are right.
Centuries of oppression,
Second rate, second-class existence,
Judgment not by character but the color of one’s skin,
Biting dogs and blasting hoses assault the dreams of decades,
The smoke burns
My throat is sore
Daddy says run
But they’re doing more.
I never knew
How bad it was
How much hurt
Came from us.
‘Cause Daddy says
This is okay.
And any lies
They were treated different,
Because they looked different.
They were a different race
They were made no space
To live together in their world
They weren't equal enough, and were hurled
You try to tell me, that we are not one
You try to tell him that he is not like me
You want to separate us
But what you don’t see is that we are truly together
You are me, I am you, you are him and her!
Living in the Shadows, the man of color
Looks for work, only to be turned down.
Another day for food stamps
and support from his wife
Living in the Shadows, the man of color
Still happening.
Marched for nothing?
Television tells me that,
we did not win the rights we asked for.
As women,
as men,
as people.
People in a society that should consider us that,
People.
Discrimination. We all thought that was gone after the Civil Rights movement.
However, today's generation faces a new type of discrimination.
That discrimination is on who you can love.
We say equal opportunity for all,
Tell me; do you know the colors of the rainbow?
Tell me; have you ever sat and watched all the people as they walk by?
When I look into the rainbow I do not see black, nor white.
All or Nothing,
Our neurons fire based on that principle
All or Nothing,
Our elders fought for that principle
All or Nothing,
All or Nothing,
I keep repeating those words
You stand with Me.
Hands connected. contrasting skin.
Warm from the fight that flows through our veins
Damp from the tears of our palms.
Against Oppression neither of us can take.
You stand with Me.
Civil Rights, a hope to be free
when all around, is segregation we see
Disrespect, no justice all the time
Segregation is such a worldly crime
Black and white are as opposite as the sun and the moon.
People can be so thick skulked, like stuck in a cocoon.
Even if the colors are on the opposite sides of the color wheel.
But judgment is what all people can feel.
started from the bottom now we here
2008 was our year
our first black president was elected
he made a change for blacks that were neglected
helping african americans overcome their struggle
You took charge.
You had power with your words.
You are a hero in so many eyes.
Your spirit will never die.
You are the only reason I'm here.
You made it possible for me to be here.
I am often asked why i do it, why
I sit in everyday, when those cops throw us away
why i sit in jail, when no one ever posts bail
How can I be free, when I am down on one knee
Together we soar,
Together we strive,
Together we are great,
Together we are alive;
But not today, no,
We have lost all equality,
Judgments and discrimination,
Create a growing fatality;
I've overcome…
From the whips and chains..
I've overcome…
From the bitter taste and sinking pains..
I've overcome…
From the shackles and wounds that burn all day..
I've overcome…
Marching forth
ever forward- a better future awaits
Marching strong
ever together- a better future is near
Marching united
ever fighting- a better future is ensured
Marching forward
I stare in front of me as I put one foot
In front
of the other
I look down
At my wrists
And see them yoked to my brother’s
And my sister’s
I think about how proud my mother
Would have been
It hurt, you know.
The way you treated me.
The way you made fun of me, the way you hurt me, the way you talked about me like I wasn't there.
It was like I wasn't even human to you.
Martin Luther King, Jr. unveiled a dream and a brighter vision
Rosa Parks, unwilling to move aside, said "no"
A. Philip Randolph organized a march that would make waves
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,
not a definition of a physical substance.
Beauty is a color,
a multitude of colors,
a sea of colors,
a flowing serpent of delicious dangerous colors,
Love and Acceptance broke through the chains of Hatred and Prejudice.
They fought long and hard and finally gained power, gained momentum;
Equal Rights for every man, white or black or in between.
Falling.
The fresh taste of blood salts my lips.
Rage. How dare I dream about a future that may never come?
For dreams bring the pain, despair of hope.
Hope for the better.
Anything better.
Keep quiet,
Censored.
It’s just ignorance and fear; she says.
Well I’m afraid of a lot of things,
Tornadoes,
Spiders,
Escalators,
You don’t see me limiting them.
Am I powerful?
Racism is something that one can't speak on unless they experienced themselves
Looking to be treated equally like everyone else is simply like a toddler reaching for a 6 foot shelf
Passing by their faces show,
The ignorance hidden deep below.
I read their faces like a book,
Absorbing every dirty look.
Fear and guilt consume their eyes,
Unconcealed through pretty lies.
We're marching for our freedom and rights
Picking up a righteous fight
The streets are paved in black and white
So join us as we march for our morning light
By the way things used to bug me
is not the same way it bugs them
but with euality and equity it bugs us all now;
I know i wasn't able to do things they did
but now i can do what they do
here they come, riding on the two buses that would have changed the world, here they come, the freedom riders here they come.
I strive to take a breath as my lungs fill with the heavy smoke
The fire burns so hot sweat begins to trickle off my arms
The burns sting and the heat dries out my eyes.
The power of the right,
Was not acknowledged by the Might.
They fought and fought,
Yet they were left distraught.
No one’s pointing a finger,
But did you do more than linger?
The world was so cruel
All the blacks were treated like fools
They were enslaved by whites
They had no civil rights
But now look where they are
They have made it so far
They fought for civil rights
"All of you boys best move right now!" yelled the officer.
I did not move, for I was unafraid.
Dr. King said we must not move, so I do not move.
"If ya'll don't want to listen, I'll get the hose"
Law
Righteousness
They are not the same
One
Yet two
To the naked eye
The other is blind
They can come
From two different minds
And never intertwine
For some reason
How naive are we to believe that the civil rights movement is over?
Is it because we can all vote for our presidents?
Because no black man has to fear a master, running away from the screams?
“Red and yellow BLACK and WHITE
They are precious in his sight…”
Words and songs sometimes forgotten,
Decomposed, spoiled, and rotten.
For one to rule over others not like him
Breathe in.
Stay calm.
Fingers refuse
As they shake.
Reach for the door knob.
Take a moment to gather
Some valor.
Think of The King.
Remember Ghandi.
Remember Rosa.
In a bus, in the city of Montgomery,
A woman came aboard.
Little did anyone know at the time,
That this woman would change the world.
Black
Black and White
Were all eyes closed at once
Hurt
Hurt in hearts
and marching to the South
the south of our hearts
what rips us apart
inside
Sit
Sit on that bus
March
Now we are here TODAY,
And still so far away.
Thinking about the PAST,
And the world TODAY.
See the world told me,
It would never be equal.
Maybe not even bilingual.
The night was thick like a nightmare,
The shadows lurked with fear,
The gentle wind felt cold on our dark skin,
Our hearts raced like a caged bird’s wings.
Foundations of these lands were marked by the free and the brave.
Through history of the past, fights were fought to make others understand
Settlement and sacrifice, journey through many cultures which made it grand
When I walk down the street,
You look at me funny
Saying in your mind
“we don’t like your kind sonny.”
Pain
Gain?
The innocent slain
They were treated like dirt
Whether they wore pants or a skirt
They were washed away like muck
And hauled away in big trucks
We were called crazy then.
To us they were not benign.
We fought our brothers opinions.
We were seen as out of line.
A protector from discrimination
You come for my salvation
In your eyes there is no difference of color
No shame in sexual orientation
No barriers for speech,
No integrity that is beat down
On a bus that cold wintery December 1st 1955,
Word caught the wind and the people did thrive.
Could this be? Well of course it could.
From the white folk ever came anything good.
Do you know about the past?
When your ancestors thought they wouldn’t last?
Sitting in the back of that class
Words that hurt more than walking on broken glass
Moving on past the discrimination
Together let’s play a game,
A game of Checker’s with two colors,
With squares both equal and same.
You’re not white.
You’re black.
That’s not right.
You live in fight
With supplies that lack.
You’re not white.
Keep out of sight.
The world’s a sack.
That’s not right.
Dream, Dream
That's all I ever knew
I have a few
Dream, Dream
Don't you see
We are one, not three
Dream, Dream
My skin is dark
That doesn't mean I need a mark
I had a dream last night that turned into a nightmare,I woke up still asleep and walked to school full of fear.The kids gave me weird looks and I didn't know why,
Met a man on the street today, black shoes, black glasses, black skin
Talked a while about this age we're living in
Told me his story, how he'd nearly made history
Until he realized the strings were pulled by white hands
When dreams long since are spent
and broken-
when a weary people can no longer
wait-
they will rise up, rise
from raisins and sores and rotten meat,
and they will speak.
Once united
Now divided
Forced to move
For the greed of whites
Stript of their pride
Stript of their freedom
Forced to leave their homes
To live their lives as slaves
Freedom
America has invested hundreds of years of its time, fighting for equality.
Every morning, children throughout the nation chant the Pledge of Allegiance.
Hand over heart.
Rosa, Martin, and I
We agree, see eye to eye.
Ain't we all equal?
Ain't we all people?
Susan, Sojourner, and I
Also see eye to eye.
“Ain't I a woman?”
Just as good as any man?
One voice shouts against the grain
Words of anger, fear, and pain,
Arms spread wide to grasp the sun,
But too far a leap for only one
I wish the moon could kiss my lips,
Releasing the sorrow I so long have held there.
A gentle touch from beams ever last.
Calms the soul, calms the soul,
Keeps me whole.
(A colored skin individual with dreams and aspiration in their eyes
Faced with the choices of the now and the then
Reminded of the options and choices they never had
No opportunity to frolic among the most educated
In the beginning, there was darkness.
There was no room for sense,
No room for differences.
But one day, a light suddenly appeared.
There was laughter and tears,
Celebration and mourning,
From the desks of Mayor Art Hanes and Commissioner Bull Conner; Birmingham, 1963:
ticktick, ticktick, ticktick:
Bull: they’ve begun to sing.
more of a chant.
you know—tribal, Bull.
Transmission follows:
The Whipping of my body, tattered
Will never leave my soul a’battered
I will one day ascend these fields
And see this country for what it yields
Not to slave, but to citizen
To the brave, who peril this denizen
I climbed up the mountain,
the day was blue.
Sprinkled in gold and burned with truth.
The sun shone as I reached my goal.
The peak loomed, then welcomed and called me home.
