Just. Plain. Wrong.
I am mourning what this country could be.
If every white person could wake up tomorrow
in different skin,
the skin that gets you shot
while sleeping innocently in your own bed,
shot in the back while causing no threat,
A child shot while playing in the park,
killed with a knee forced on the neck
while begging to breathe,
the skin that gets you ignored in a car dealership showroom,
the skin that gets you stopped for shoplifting,
when there was no shoplifting,
the skin that gets you ignored at an Open House
when the whole point is to sell that house.
And.
Every.
Time.
And every time the police officer who shoots you,
knees you to death,
clubs you bloody,
apparently has an exemption for killing you,
Every time you get followed, suspected, ignored like you don’t exist, bullied, shouted at ~ all for no valid reason,
you go home stressed, traumatized and belittled,
treated like you don't count,
your children see you demeaned in front of their eyes,
They get it too, and there is nothing your systematic racist
country is doing to stop the injustice,
in fact the perpetrators proudly pump up their chests,
because they see they are free to wield the power,
feel emboldened by the president
Can see he feels like they do
since he condones the bigotry,
he even throws words around to encourage it
and support it
Says loudly in his pep rallies, police
don't be too nice,
to his rally kool-aid gang says
break the law,
"I'll pay your legal bill,
Don't be too nice."
If every white person could wake up tomorrow
with different skin and that waking up
was for the last time due to the skin being DIFFERENT,
racism may be understood by the white person
who BELIEVED they were one of the non-racist ones.
All for one reason
of waking up
with different skin,
found what they thought about themselves
was just plain wrong.
They just never experienced it like that.
And it is clear now
What they thought
What they think about themselves
is. just. plain. wrong.
Sandra Hammel
August 24, 2020
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