a collaborative project in the lyric mode
Let's Be Civil ...
Intolerance: America's Protest
100 Black Men
Kanye said “ We shine because they hate us, floss ‘cause they degrade us… Even if you in a Benz, you still a nigga in a coupe… We’ll buy a lot of clothes but we don’t really need ‘em. Things we buy to cover up what’s inside… cause they made us hate ourselves and love their wealth… And the white man gets paid off of all of that.”
In the free country, 100 black men aren't free.
Black men raised poor are at the top of the list for remaining in poverty. Young black men are poorly served by schools, and they earn less than white men and women. Black Men are twice as likely to be unemployed as white men and die four years earlier than white men. Black men make up the largest share of prisoners in our broken system.
They are more likely to die from Covid-19… and other diseases.
On the news, there is no justice. Doesn’t seem like there ever will be against a white cop. It doesn’t matter what we do or say. THEY WILL KILL US.
When did your protector become our bully? To be stuck in a time loop it seems there was always a start but never an end. Yes, we all know the true American way is to throw back beers, eat bacon, speak English, and to raise those flags screaming blue lives matter
The look in his eyes as he drew his last breath, as bystanders scream in the background “he didn’t do anything!” The historical moment being recorded so it can be played again and again like some sick perverted movie for the white man to justify and twist for their innocence.
“I felt threatened. I thought he had a gun. He wasn’t complying.”
A white lady said he whistled at her/ Those skittles looked like a gun/ That pill bottle looked like a gun/He was sitting on the sofa eating ice cream/ He was selling CDs and DVDs/ He had an air freshener/He was sleeping in his car in the drive-thru/ He was walking down a street with a friend/
And so much more suffering. All of this to take out 100 black men left and right at all means possible. We need our black men.
Black communities, families, women, and children. We love 100 black men. The rest of the world doesn't.
Don't Shoot!
BLACK KILLINGS (BLM MOVEMENT)
Roots
Stand tall like a tree
With your past stacked among your pillows
And your heart on your sleeve.
I am powerful because I am BLACK.
I can say to my oppressor, “I view the world differently than you view me.”
A smile shining through the clouds
Body armor thrown to the ground.
It’s not unsafe and threatening to live in this world
It is what I make it to be.
A sense of empowerment overwhelms my soul
And knowledge becomes the person who wants it most.
NO I do not look like that black person over there, I look like me.
No person is the same.
The mistake is not caring to separate the two—
which comes with a fee.
Does it really feel better cheating off an almost white person?
Lighter skin almost looks white so you can pretend to get along but they are still black.
They identify as black.
Is that how you cheat death?
That person’s a friend that can help you get ahead like the cop who gave me a ticket for speeding
and the white person that flew by, a freebie?
Black Lives Matter… All Lives Matter
Hands on the wheel, and “Yes sir. I am going to reach for my ID now. It’s in my wallet.”
All lives don’t understand that fear.
Children see no color, racism fathered race.
The word nigga slips from a white person, and confusion trips the tongue.
A joke stuck in their throats but a friend in ours.
My black slang isn’t foolishness or ghetto
It isn’t how I comprehend or how I want to be heard
It’s relaxation and creativity
But that doesn’t stop you from making it a negative possibility.
Can you hear the color in my voice?
A drum of roughness means black, like black screams danger.
Stupidity wraps around the brain
like black people can’t get cancer and white people can’t have sickle cell…
The mental health of black people isn’t taken seriously either. Just ask the man who called
Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, “a selfish, childish national embarrassment.”
Or you can look at how black women in sports are constantly body shamed like Serena Williams
and mocked for being too sensitive and aggressive.
We were meant to be used and discarded as if we were a prop to get ahead but not celebrated.
Our ancestors, black slaves, the true backbone of this country,
MADE AMERICA GREAT…
AGAIN
Tell me how insecure you must feel to say that black people have natural talent for athletics.
Literally our ancestors spent their whole lives, slaves, working hard and getting whipped to
make white men's lives easier.
Well I guess you can say black men evolved because you forced us to.
That is why our body is muscular, why you fear losing to us, because in a way, you led us to
victory that’s been a long time coming.
That made me laugh!
Louder now that you can see how you look in my eyes.
Your blood boiling from being undermined
Mine spilled for being who I am.
I can be happy and a frown shatters my face.
Does that make you uncomfortable?
I’m not angry child; I am okay.
I was told at a young age, to learn I must open a book.
That’s where white men keep my history– hidden.
Originally black people couldn’t read… What's our excuse now?
My roots dig through your veins
Blossoming injustice and poverty
As if laziness was my name
My hair is beautiful but it might be too African for small minded people.
A mask of ignorance to block my beauty
I spread my branches like a butterfly spreads its wings
As you chop them down.
But you’ll still have my roots.
my brother:
Wears a hood and becomes a victim.
my brother:
Runs through the clouds and skips raindrops.
my brother:
Take these broken wings and learn to fly.
my brother:
I wave and you don’t wave back.
my brother:
Wipe my tears away.
my brother:
A black man.
my sister:
Mourns the death of a blackbird singing in the winter snow.
my sister:
Folds, closing her eyes and spreading the wings of royalty she falls.
my sister:
A black queen, a true creation, why are you so overlooked?
my sister:
Shows her hand and grows cold, not old.
my sister:
A black woman.
I Come From ...
I come from a womb, frozen by fear and filled with wine.
Given to the white man, I come from shackles.
Heavy the burden of life, I come from.
I come from soil.
A soil my creator has shaped to form men
from men, women.
With all great things I come from Heaven.
An angel without its wings, but everyday I get closer to
earning them.
May the Mighty God shine his love on me.
I come from colors.
Multiple emotions overcrowding my brain.
I fall to the ground, get back up, and
I stand.
I come from a warrior.
A house full of chaos and broken smiles to make me stronger.
A figure whose home will be a shelter for many.
I come from…
The Year 2020
Covid-19 Pandemic
California Wildfires
Chadwick Boseman
( Nov. 29. 1976. - Aug. 28. 2020. )
MeghaN + Prince Harry Clones
Huge Killer Hornets
"Sleepy Joe" Election (some say he is cloned too!)
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Gianna Bryant (May.1.2006 - Jan.26.2020)
Kobe Bryant (Aug.23.1978 - Jan.26.2020)
Kamala Harris Election (First Female,Black & Asian American Vice President)
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Ruth Bader Ginsburg(March 15.1933-Sept.18.2020)
“Champ of equal Rights”
President Donald Trump Re-election campaign
(TRUMP 2020) Let’s Keep AMERICA GREAT! Build a Wall to keep China OUT!
Watch the waves… The waves soar like a bald eagle without its wings.
The clouds kicked spirits out of Heaven, and the fallen ones rose as teardrops fell.
The baby cried…cried for its mom, cried for its dad, cried for someone who wasn’t there.
Where was its owner? Why didn’t they care?
Plague and bitterness filled loved ones' homes leaving laughter at the doorstep, and families with no place to roam.
Trump tricks and deceives as much as we choose to roll the die.
Slithering pass our hearts to put us in the ground cold, and dead, yet alive.
For now.
Triumph for a wicked leater.
You’re a racist!
You spit in my face and call me ugly, and stupid.
Go ahead and grab me by my pussy. That doesn’t define you as my superior. It calls on your
ignorance towards anyone else to a screeching halt.
Louder than the crash of my faith in our Lord.
You sexist idiot!
This is my country too. It was becoming great until blue collars like the vile creature you are
crawled into power.
“Monkey see, monkey do”, aren’t you PATHETIC!
Sit down and let my fear jump out of my skin.
Shrug off the citizens, plead for a future, and start a war.
Bend me over and fuck me in the ass again, and again, and again.
Did you enjoy it?
Her pain? She said “NO, please Stop!”
You came instead.
You’re going to win the battle, but we already won the war.
God will strike you down, and anyone who chooses to trespass against us.
Plant a seed there, and here, and let it spread like the virus in the air.
We’re animals, raised to be like our leader: savage and all.
We KICK.
Let us out, and let us free!
We stop. Stop thinking. Acting without sense.
Stop talking, for our tongues have been cut.
Stop breathing… No, we suffer from your sickness.
Tweet that. I believe you would disregard me as if I’m nothing because I’m poor.
You are a thief! You stole from my family for generations, and stuck me in these terrible
neighborhoods, you could care less about.
No, I do not look like my president.
Not since Barack Ebola.
We live in the Dark Ages, we always have… Yep. Another historical moment.
“So shocking” I say sarcastically.
Sirens blaring through this madness. The alarm clock shouts but never wakes me up.
Is there a future? Can we go on now?
I think it’s time to go home.
I.just.watched.a.dog.shit.on.my.grass. Let’s build a wall between me and my neighbor! An idea
proposed by our leader.
A wall between the U.S. and China... for “our death was made in China” I saw on my insta feed.
This is worse than 9/11, please cooperate with the elders.
Let’s turn off the tv, shut the door, and keep the outside world “out”.
Listen to static on the radio as we live under our dome.
My voice echoes throughout my home.
BREAKING NEWS!!!
Is everything really “breaking news”? Is it really going to collapse our minds? Paranoia builds on
our social interaction, as the economy digs deeper than the Great Depression.
MOnSTers, Tigers, and BEARS! OH MY!!!
Our country is fighting for their lives.
Stop the violence.
Stop the racism.
Stop the sexism.
Stop the class status.
Stop the labels.
Stop the hate.
And spread the love.
Winter Coat
What is it about the winter coat that he was led astray?
Is it because the sleeves frayed?
The zipper doesn’t work anymore but the winter coat holds warmth.
Passed down from sibling to sibling, my brother never wore it.
I wish he did. I’d say he cuddled me everyday on the coldest of days.
It’s almost 50 today. The sun shines but the snow doesn’t melt.
It was on a day like this.
I dread every moment of the birds chirping in the morning like dancing flowers in the wind.
I ignore the traffic on the way to the cemetery.
The world goes silent as rose petals fall like icicles.
I stop at the head of his gravestone.
It reads:
He’s more alive now than when he was here. He’s free.
Jailbirds
“Free my homeboy Tyrone. Free Quavo, Taydog, and Duke…”
“Man, we know slavery didn’t go away it just evolved… We ain’t as
stupid as we look. Pull up yo pants! Always saggin’.”
“Bro. Maybe the world was set at this pace. 1, 2, 3 black men in shackles.”
“I told you. That’s why you see more niggas in prison… These white
boys can shoot up the kids in school and not get shot on sight, they
either shoot themselves to maintain power or get escorted safely to
prison. We walk or talk funny and we dead.”
“Yeah. We know the real criminals are still on the streets, killing everyone, and us. Don’t they call it the American dream? I call it bullshit. Fuck white supremacy and their right to bear arms…”
“They justify themselves, da cops, they say we kill ourselves more
than they do. You know, black on black crimes.”
“But they gave us the drugs, the guns, and stuck us in these shit kept neighborhoods. We just tryin’ to survive man.”
“Yeah, I know. They don’t know what it’s like. We gon make it out one
day though.”
“It ain’t gon be today.”
“Nah.”
“I feel like another number… scared my life will stop before I get to live. At birth I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t choose to be black! I just am.”
(Beat)
“But here we are, in our own prison of hell reliving our death
sentence.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tasheania Lee is a B.F.A. Creative Writing and B.A. Journalism & Media Communications student, with minors in Communication Studies and Arts Administration.
"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."
~Maya Angelou