Huffing Racism.

Freewrite/ Rant

Will I ever stop being
disappointed in you?
Disgusted by how
you still take smoking breaks
to save yourself,
mapping out the criminal
parts of the city
that you can avoid
instead of delinquent
thoughts
(oh the irony)

because we're not all equal,
not yet

You still downplay
any statistic,
any police brutality,
any wrong fatality,
blaming their DNA
for acting out,
for trying to defend
themselves
when it's been proven
they are less protected,
marginalized

And you still rest
without interruption,
believing they need to
be more grateful
for a second chance,
but how can you
call them citizens when
they're murdered each
hour of your sleep?

And you still live
peacefully,
so you don't ever have
to confront truth
in its bloody font,
in the way it leaves
Black men homeless
crying on the streets.
Families can barely
breathe without a vigil
or protest on calendars,
always told they're too
aggressive,
too emotional,
unable to grieve or
fight for the mere
right to life.

I'm not proud to call you
father
when you criticize
people of color
for voicing how they survive
in a world that tries to
"see no color",
therefore erasing
history and discrimination
and the reality that we've
not nearly made enough progress.
You complain about "Black power"
as if that's a bad thing,
when really,
you're scared to face
prejudice,
scared to realize you've
been acting superior,
not understanding your
skin serves as armor -
no limit to what you'll
be able to get away with,
after all,
you think slavery
is just a thing of the past.
You'll never know
how much damage you cause
even as the bodies pile.

You need a taste of your own
damn medicine;
slavery doesn't just manifest
itself in chains.
It's the comments you make,
the iron bars created in your
brain -
who's the prisoner
when your life is built
on gaslighting others?