Kings and Queens ruled in a far away land
Bought to the Americas in a slave caravan
Human bondage omitted from school book facts
Atrocities committed by aristocrats
The stories have been passed down through the grapevine
On the Underground Railroad and over a bottle of wine
NO 40 acres
Great granddaddy was the mule
We don’t have what’s rightfully ours NO Justice is the rule
Listening is an Art that many obviously lack
Regurgitating information without a single fact
The “T A L K” is imperative to avoid the landmines
This conversation addresses all the racial confines
Living in a red line no matter where we go
Divide and conquer
just give them some blow
Progress impeded
Our future as slaves foretold
Our son’s life marked
before he’s 2yrs. Old
Profiled and deprived expecting officials to protect
Still waiting for a Federal Law
to get ‘Knees off our Neck’
Assets taken
families separated to create a void
Poverty today
because yesterday white privilege was annoyed
Foot firmly on our back giving injustice free reign
While seemingly confused by our animosity and distain
A NOOSE hung openly is a clear and present Danger
Swinging in the wind for a year did any ONE inquire
Accepted by onlookers as a victimless prank
Is a conscious choice with ignorance to thank
White privilege is an invisible mask
Civil rights null and void until we’re finally pass:
Who’s watching me when I enter a store
Scrutinized every minute I walk the floor
Incensed when I come not to buy
but look
Tailing me as I ride in my Lincoln
like I’m a crook
Disbelief when my voice doesn’t match my skin
Attacking boys as if they’re grown MEN
Guns drawn handcuffed face down on the ground
You’re free to go wrong man no weapons found
Who’s rubbing their hands together raising interest high
Knowing we must come to them when we’re ready to buy
Who’s claiming neighborhood streets when we go for a run
Vehicles filled with angry men each brandishing a gun
All those complicit and incompetent convict with no appeal
Our forever POTUS forged the path for this ‘New Deal’
Knowledge is food make sure the children are fed
Create a new narrative in their head
I know a graphic artist with the gift of genius
He can draw a line and make it jit between us
A tagger
a con-artist
a pimp on the street
NO
an artist
a stockbroker
CEO with a fleet
The greed for equity fuels the fight for segregation
The means is to manipulate lives through suppression
Equality and justice should not be the spoils of War
But unalienable rights that will open any door
Marching arm in arm knowing where you came from
A Million feet on the ground will change the outcome
There is an urgency
VOTE
disparities must be addressed
POC embrace your identity we are MORE not less
On both sides of the Pond our Vision reigns true
‘Power to the People’ little Prince ‘Black Lives Matter’ too
–Lorna D. (Sansom) Whitfield 4/11/2002 rev. 7/09/2020
Preamble to “Graffiti on the Walls of MY Mind” 509 -3:17
The Traveler Weekly 