Reparations

As Ta-Nehisi Coates said,

“America begins in black plunder and white democracy,

two features that are not contradictory but complementary.”

 

Every whip slash inflicted on their backs ironically gave them strength to

carry on their shoulders the burden of trickery, treachery and conformity.

Let’s not forget the burden of you dismantling the Black family

and using Black babies to breed human machinery.

Machinery used to provide centuries

of privilege and stability for your offspring.

 

And as I write this piece, my hand chokes pen angrily

and the red ink from it bleeds, reminding me

of the 1920’s, Bruce’s Beach and Black Wall Street, reminding me

of decade after decade of your people consistently stealing from me.

 

You keep telling me and my people to get over it

but how can we when the consequences still exist,

and when your grandfather’s clock of wealth continues to tick.

 

As long as you keep benefiting from my people’s timeless misfortunes,

you should never fix your expectations for me to forget.

Hell no, I won’t get over this!

 

America is in debt,

they’ve run up a bill on their black card,

now it’s time for them to pay what’s rightfully ours,

no more committing identity fraud.

 

And if you refuse to pay me monetarily,

at the very least pay me the respect

your ancestors stole from mine during slavery

when you forced her to breastfeed your babies

but refused to nourish her body

with THE VERY FOODS she prepared for you and your family!

 

The balance won’t disappear,

it will only accrue more interest

until you take serious our interest

and make payments.

 

Pay us!

Reparations for our separations;

separation from

our property,

our families,

our dignity, and

our liberty.

Separation from our mother’s land,

the motherland during slavery.

 

Pay me

because you steadily deprive me

of everything I’ve worked hard for and earned.

 

Pay me

because your sweet little Becky

can get a job void a college degree

and still be paid more than me

even though I obtained a master’s degree.

 

Pay me

because you refuse to hire me,

all because my hair can defy gravity.

 

Pay me

for discriminating against me,

because I choose to use a loctician and refuse

to conform to the European standards of beauty.

 

Pay me

because you used my tax dollars to build prisons

for my people and their children instead of schools

with updated curricula and teachers that educate effectively.

 

Pay me

because you created a school to prison pipeline and called it a remedy

when in actuality it’s modern-day slavery.

 

Pay me

because I have to prepare my child to expect police brutality

and to accept the reality

that the cops can kill her and walk away scot-free.

 

Pay me

for redlining, White flight, and the red, white and blue lights

signaling for me to pull over all because I’m driving while Black,

in a White neighborhood at night.

 

Pay us,

for standing on the front line overseas to fight your war

only to be assaulted for wearing an American uniform

once we step back on US soil.

 

Pay me and pay me handsomely!

 

My hand chokes pen angrily

as red ink from it bleeds reminding me of

Troy Anthony Davis,

    Marissa Alexander,

Trayvon Martin,

Tamir Rice,

Mike Brown,

Eric Garner,

Archie Elliot,

Oscar Grant,

Sandra Bland,

Ahmaud Arbery,

Christopher Deandre Mitchell,

George Floyd,

Breonna Taylor,

and so many others.

My hand will continue to choke pen and force it to bleed

until I am deceased or until this country pays me

for all they have stolen from me

and for the black keloid scars they’ve left on humanity.

PAY ME!!!