CN: racism, violence, police, white supremacy, murder
A 400+ year campaign slogan “We’re white and right!”?
Is wrong,
Whites and rights don’t get along.
They’d rather be white than right
White flight takes a wrong turn
When supremacists end up taking
Turns
Spinning shots
Shooting shot guns
Knees on necks
(“Don’t tread on me”)
Waving flags that took rights
Waving flags that took lives
Protecting monuments of fear
Monumental injustice
Those whites would rather be white
Than right
The irony of whites’ would-be rights
And wrongs
And wrong-left-turn attempts
“But freedom of speech!” becomes silence
…when Black Lives Matter
Riots in the streets
Begun by men in invisible white sheets
Supremacists who want pandemic haircuts
And 52% of white women
Are quiet about first amendment rights
When it’s about black rights.
They’re
…Quiet about the bricks they supplied
The actors they supplied
The hawaiian shirts they supplied
The agitators they supplied
Their privilege they can’t hide behind
We’re peacefully marching in the streets
Staring in the faces of white riot police
National Guard
Armored Trucks
Undercover actors
Amy Coopers
We lose our lives, our eyes, our privacy.
We bleed
We disappear
We hide
We come out
Stingrays hear us
Birds watch us
Medics catch us
Curfews threaten us
When “I can’t breathe” becomes our creed
White privilege throws bricks through our own windows
Calls the pigs in to zip tie us
To teargas us
To shoot us
To flash bang us
To destroy us
Because of bad actors we strongly condemn
Because of our kneeling we peacefully can’t end
Because of our die-ins and sit-ins and stand-ins and marchings
Because of PR kneelings by mayors and churches and pigs in riot gear
Who tear gas us in and out the other ear
Police are hypocrites
Their tears of gas just ignite the fire
Because of their own fear
To be right would mean
Restorative justice
Decolonization
Acknowledging privilege
Staying quiet
Reparations
Convicting killer cops for their racism
Not legalizing their lethal convictions
They’d rather be white
Than admit being wrong
They’d rather be supremacist white
Than right
But “Not all whites”?
But “All Lives Matter”?
The irony doesn’t escape me
When so many whites are alt right
Pretending their right is to be white
While rights are forever white lies
“Make whites great again”
And “all lives matter” – racism in disguise
When just one house is always on fire
And it’s never theirs
And they watch it burn
Roasting rubber marshmallows
In the flames
Who’s gonna stop the fire
When the BLM fire fighters are forced to the streets
To march for the right to breathe
The right to live
The right to protection
The right to stay six feet apart
Safe at home
Safe at work
Safe driving
Safe thriving
Not six feet down
The cops take our masks away
During a pandemic
They detain us without fresh air
In small rooms
And tell us to breathe
We can’t be six feet apart, detained
They want us all:
Allies
Partners
Comrades
Black people…
Six feet under
Where they put George
Where they put Stephon
Where they put Tony
Where they put Breonna
Where they put Sandra
Where they put ….
“Am I next?”
No Justice
No Peace
They breathe the virus down our necks
Which virus? Both.
- COVID-19 and
- Fascist heritage that was never
Their right
…their right they wrote into the law themselves
…their right that makes their capital grow
…their right that brought us to ACAB
They wrote the history books
White supremacists
Dictator Chump
Holding the Bible
Upholding white laws
Translated by white thugs
We’re holding our
Hands Up
Don’t Shoot
They’re
Spinning shots
Shooting shot guns
Kneeling on necks
(“Don’t tread on me”)
Waving flags that took rights
They committed wrongs with their rights!
Right is wrong
Lefts are right but often white
Whites are wrong (but “not all whites”?)
F*ck that
White rights are wrong
Those murderous cops – taking rights by being white
Rather than being truly right
All the wrongs don’t make white right
White wrongs are racism
We’re kneeling in the streets
8 minutes
46 seconds
Please
I
Can’t
Breathe
George Floyd can hear us breathe for him
They’re
Going
To
Kill
Me
George Floyd can hear us fight for him
Everything
Hurts
Because “Daddy changed the world”
End
I’m a white-passing trans disabled ally and this poem is not intended to speak for black people or overshadow black voices; I only hope to call out white supremacy as an ally. Please donate to local bail funds, center black lives in this movement, learn about your privilege (if you’re not black), educate your communities, support black-owned businesses, advocate for anti-racist legislation; and leave links below with educational, mutual aid, and activist materials for allies to learn/join.
See you in the streets.
BeingCharis 