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I am unapologetically black, a Poem and Mural Painting by Ashante Sabir Collins, Anti-Racism Task Force Intern

I am unapologetically black

Every day of my life

And my blackness is not a weapon

Every time I blink my eyes you shouldn’t see triggers

But yet to you I’m still just another Target

Behind these masked walls of lies and deception that y’all have presented to us as a gift for our undying loyalty like it’s some prize and we should accept it I must say I’m a skeptic

We still do not have the same expectation of greatness that our fellow alabaster brothers have  instead we see black lives being taken by blue shirts who can take off their clothes at night and while I have to sit in this black skin and hope it doesn’t offend

Instead of seeing my man my brother my son or dad walk across a stage or build up his own company and take ownership of some kind in this land you brought us too I’m more likely to see bullet holes riddled in their bodies as I look behind a window with pristine white coats and white people pulling a white cloth over their heads and yet

You want them to go out in the world every day and not think this is the day they could end up of dead. For 400 years we have been here in this land you brought us too for 400 years you have looked down on us like we did something to you for 400 years we have put up with it and I must say today is the day that we can’t stomach no more of your mess For 400 years we have been biding our time and like the ones before us who have paved the roads with gold to the promise land we have to finish building it because if we don’t our justice will never exist

Because I refuse to believe that with all the knowledge of the past and the hope for the future that all we can do is sit with so much time and idle minds

When we have so many ideas in mind.

Trying to tear us down only made us stronger and I refuse to see my son’s body outlined in chalk and his name to just become another hashtag when he could very well have the cure for aids but to you his skin was the plague so you took him out. I refuse to keep waking up and seeing the destruction humiliation and senseless murdering of my people because a trigger happy  rookie was too busy playing candy crush to remember that hands up don’t shoot, I can’t breathe, and our black men asking officer why do you have your gun out is such a threat to you that you clearly forgot who pays your check. You are a civil servant not God not Allah not any divine spirit that lines the halls of the places that we have to congregate in when you take our people from us because to you it was another day in the office officer. Trayvon just wanted to get home, George and Eric just wanted to breathe, Oscar didn’t want to be shot by you, Philando wasn’t reaching, Walter didn’t want to be tased, Sandra just wanted to leave the jail cell, Michael didn’t have a gun, Tamir didn’t have a gun , Jordan just wanted to listen to music, Ahmad couldn’t even go running, And Breonna couldn’t be in her home. Now you tell me who’s wrong

The revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be televised

The revolution Will not be televised

The revolution will be live

But someway somehow some day we have to stop the lies

If you are not angry you should be

If you don’t feel my pain you should be

If you don’t hear the cries for help from those who have had boundaries in their way since the day their grandparents were born you should be

If you didn’t check your white privilege at the door to this conversation you should have

The people who are sick and tired of being sick and tired I’m sorry you have a long way to go

Justice for this cause isn’t coming over night

Some of our brothers and sisters have already died so we could win the fight

But standing together is going to prove fruitful in the end because God hasn’t left our side even though we may not see his footprints in the sand alongside of us he is carrying us to promised land

I stand with you and I see you

I hear you and I’m listening

Our journeys all may not be the same but in the end we all hope to gain

Justice

Equity

Belovedness

And security in knowing that what we are fighting for the great good. And with that my brothers and sisters how can we lose

Black lives matter and they should everyday

Black lives matter no matter what the opposition has to say

Black lives matter black lives matter black lives matter and I will continue to say it till I take my last breath. Black lives matter.