A Twisted verdict came down today
Goddam it takes my breath away
And What that jury really meant to say
"Shoot a Black for free, you don't gotta pay"
I read somewhere as the cops pulled them from the train
Oscar called to people, "Ya all be cool"
He wasn't gonna play their fool
But see they don't teach you in school
if Black in America it don't matter what you're doing
you can be loud, you can be quiet, you can be walking, you can be
working, you can be poor, you can be doing alright for yourself, you can
be a Harvard professor, you can be a radical, you can be running, you
can be funning, you can be sleeping
all you're really good for is a jail cell or police shooting
I can hear Oscar's ancestors crying, hear Sean's and Aiyana's too
long history of toiling and dying, moments of really living too few.
A woman sang it best back then about Alabama, Tennessee and
Mississippi.
Tonight it's Oakland goddam, but everybody knows it's from sea to
shining sea.
Goddam
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Emily Holleman
Fay Paxton
FrogTown Diva
Caroline Hagood
J D Smith
Pavanne Veltman
Salon.com
Comments
Afraid the poem doesn't do this horrific injustice justice. Much love to you.
I don't want to be here to read the crap that the East Coast pseudo intellectuals put on the front page tomorrow.
Thanks for the poem from the heart and mind.
I have a feeling the media will really down play this...they'll keep the issue of racism out of it(understatement or overstating the obvious I know :) )...so then crimes likes this just continue. Much love to you.
Good to see you. Yes this is truly maddening and heartbreaking. And while I'm not surprised at the verdict it doesn't make it any less outrageous. BTW I really love the picture of the yellow lab on your post this morning. Labs rule! Much love to you.
Goddam it takes my breath away"
Good poem, Jill. It works... unlike our justice system.
P.S. Welcome back, hon. Stick around now, ya hear! Been missing your insights. Hugs.
Aem i, while I don't agree with smashing storefronts and stealing things as a way to express outrage over something that is so outrageous , I understand the anger. I think it has to do with feeling powerless over a system that is both behind this systematic racism and then perpetuates it with this kind of verdict. We really have to get at what is going on here and that means really looking at what leaving under this kind of system means for people of color in this country and we have to change it.
Much love to you all.
Yes very sad. Much love to you
Thank you.
It just made me so sick at heart that I had to write this. Much love to you.