WLRN.org (Photo: Christian K. Lee)
2nd Amend Meant
ââŚshotgunâshoot âem for he run now!â
âJunior Walker
I.
Redlined, âwhiteâ enclave. Un-ceded Hopewell,
Kansa, Mississippi, Missouri, Osage, Otos tribal
Land. Receiving settler soundbites of misinformation,
disinformation, 1/2 truth, big lies attached to Fox-box
IVâthe prisoner trembles fearfully in padded cell of
âWhiteness.â
Maybe he fears ghosts of gunpowder done real
estate Deals?
Maybe his MAGA-mind hears dispossessed people
pleading with him and cracker comfort tribe STOP
the chopâthe so-called âtomahawk chopâââwhitesâ
Insist on doing at Kansas City âChiefsâ football
games?
II.
Post-Bacon Rebellionâ
2nd Amend Meantâ
Every man, woman, child, cutthroat, killer,
sadist, torturer, overseerâslaver-wannabe
Infected with âwhitenessâ could STOP you.
Question you about where youâre goingâŚ
About where youâve been. Plantation/reservation
youâre coming from? Going to? Supposed to be on?
Blunderbuss, flintlock, musket, revolver trained on
templesââWhitenessâ questioned!
Questioned how dark skins got there. When they
got there. What was in their pockets? Never
questioning what makes âwhitenessâ fear forâŚ
sacrosanct Safety?
2nd Amend Meantâ
Every man, woman, child, cutthroat, killer,
sadist, torturer, overseer-slaver wannabe
Infected with âwhitenessâ could STOP you.
Detain you! Arrest you! Flog you! Lynch youâ
come up with cruel, creative ways to crucify
or castrate you!
2nd Amend Meantâ
They could cooly flex index fingers should you
Flinch!
Object!
Make eye contact! Speak when not spoken to!
Breathe when youâre not permitted to breathe!
III.
Black at wrong address, the boy was there
to pick twin brothers up. He picked up two
Bullets instead.
Had his lithe, young, gifted
Chocolate, promise-filled, bass clarinet-playing
body perforated
He knocked for an answer regarding the twins.
.32 caliber
questions tore through glass, ripped in
to his furrowed brow like a hot pin ball:
Do Black Lives really Matter? If so, how
much?
The ball bounced into a neighborâs yard
and drew gunfire. The car turned into a
driveway and drew gunfire. The woman
approached a wrong car and drew gunfire.
Volleys of shots are 2nd Amend Meant for:
âHow may I help you?â
Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet; BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at: GoFundMe and PayPal.
Shani Robinson taught in the Atlanta, Georgia public school system.
Dr. Nicole Price is the Forbes Books author of Spark The Heart: Engineering Empathy In Your Organization.
Nick Encalada-Malinowski is Director of the Civil Rights Union campaign at Vocal-NY.
The climate emergency won't end because of heartfelt pleas to the people and the interests who created the crisis. Ecocide will stop when capitalism ends.
To mark the last days of Black August, we reprint below Freedomwaysâ 1975 editorial about Joanne Little, a Black woman indicted for killing her white prison guard and would-be rapist.
