<\/p>\n
Some things are known before they are said<\/p>\n
You can tell the formality<\/p>\n
The rehearsed cadence in his voice<\/p>\n
As a white man stands and delivers his brand of justice<\/p>\n
The way he has been indoctrinated to believe that truth<\/p>\n
And right lie in the hands and minds of those<\/p>\n
With more power<\/p>\n
Better arguments<\/p>\n
More facts<\/p>\n
And a better articulation<\/p>\n
And more guns<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My hair raised ever so gently on my arms<\/p>\n
My mother crying in the phone<\/p>\n
Telling me she worries<\/p>\n
About bobby at night<\/p>\n
In dark<\/p>\n
Past a curfew of respectability<\/p>\n
When good boys are home<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My same mother once told me she<\/p>\n
Wasn\u2019t political<\/p>\n
But I guess the personal <\/p>\n
The profound<\/p>\n
The profane can pull it out of you<\/p>\n
I asked though my tears<\/p>\n
Where is my brother?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He gets on the phone slow scared unsure of what I will say<\/p>\n
Robert<\/p>\n
Not bob bob<\/p>\n
Not his stage name of epic mind of lo<\/p>\n
Robert<\/p>\n
Do you see what your life is worth I ask<\/p>\n
Yes he says<\/p>\n
Then that is all that matters I say<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I keep going back and forth between pain and anger<\/p>\n
Tears and outrage<\/p>\n
I just keep thinking God do you love us?<\/p>\n
Then why isn\u2019t our liberation top on the priority list<\/p>\n
Before rising the sun<\/p>\n
And pulling the moon out<\/p>\n
Before snow fall<\/p>\n
And dusk setting<\/p>\n
And seasons changing<\/p>\n
Why isn\u2019t our liberation top on the to do list<\/p>\n
Do you keep moving it around your calendar<\/p>\n
Like I do the things I don\u2019t really want to do<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I keep thinking will this make us stop buying bobby shmurda<\/p>\n
Will this remember black is beautiful<\/p>\n
Call us back to black power like the 76 ebony magazine I found<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Will we decide we are more than whitewashed faces<\/p>\n
And salaries and degrees<\/p>\n
More like kings and queens<\/p>\n
More than soul food<\/p>\n
And basketballs and running on fields<\/p>\n
That we don\u2019t own<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I want our freedom<\/p>\n
But I know it might cost<\/p>\n
But tonight I would be willing to pay it<\/p>\n
With my own body<\/p>\n
Offer me on the cross like Jesus<\/p>\n
Since god is a black woman anyway<\/p>\n
Crucify me<\/p>\n
Let me blood run in streets like black boys<\/p>\n
Killed to soon<\/p>\n
Anything to release all the tears I feel<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dear Mike.<\/p>\n
We failed<\/p>\n
We tried<\/p>\n
The system beat us again<\/p>\n
We are sorry<\/p>\n
We thought this time<\/p>\n
In your name we prayed<\/p>\n
And danced<\/p>\n
And worked<\/p>\n
And organized<\/p>\n
We believed<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We cry about your death<\/p>\n
What will we do for the boys who live<\/p>\n
We cried about injustice<\/p>\n
What will we give up for freedom<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Harriet said she could have freed more if you<\/p>\n
Convinced them they were slaves<\/p>\n
Mike maybe you can break the chains<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We cry miscarriage<\/p>\n
But we abort the mission<\/p>\n
Mike I\u2019m praying your death gives us vision<\/p>\n
Let it be the thing that helps us see<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t believe in justice<\/p>\n
I believe in black<\/p>\n
And being free<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Less can be more. Newman’s poetry speaks from the heart of the pain of oppression in a way that an academic article could not reach, not matter the world count. \u200b\u200bWe know that the personal is policitcal, but Newman’s work brings home the fact that the polictical is also intensely personal for so many voices not lifted up by mainstream media.\u200b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-african-american","category-racism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n