CRT

I had scribbled this down on scratch paper not long after George Floyd’s death. It seems like there will always be something happening in our country that makes it relevant to talk about systematic racial injustice. Maybe someday it will be history (that we are allowed to teach) rather than headlines and internet chatter. I hope. I always hope.

You protest.
You protest for your right to protest.
But to take a knee is a bridge too far.
You claim that fascism impedes your freedom.
I’m sorry you can’t breathe with a mask on your face.
Try breathing with a knee on your neck.
Why do four white police have the right to kneel?
George.
Ahmaud.
Kaepernick.
“Obamagate.”
His only crime was his color.
I want you to say it out loud
Because your actions are killing.
Your ignorance is killing.
Your whiteness lets you claim “this is America” to let you
Get away with murder in the name of freedom.
Don’t you know there’s a fascist knee on your neck, too?
You kneel to the god of capitalism
And insist on the right to life.
Inconvenience is not infringement.
Discomfort is not oppression.
But I guess even a pebble in your shoe is intolerable
When you were born with everything.
Born looking down, you’ll never know what it means to have to hope.
It’s not a jackbooted foot or a knee in dress blues that holds you down,
It’s a dress shoe covering bone spurs and gout.
No wonder you can’t see the knee on your neck.
Your vision is based on color.
Maybe one day we’ll learn to look to the side—
To see everyone on a lateral plane.
Not up, not down,
Not worry who’s right or left.
When we clamor to be on top,
Someone’s always on the bottom.

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