It's time for a name
Not to be just another 'name'

To anyone who lost a life
You didn't die in vain

Colour doesn't matter
Inside we're all the same

It's time to stop the suffering
It's time to stop the pain

A man driving a semi truck down a closed highway towards thousands of kneeling peaceful protestors was not an accident.

My wife and I were there. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the love and solidarity I felt from the community as we chanted for justice—an elderly Black man with a walking cane telling me about how he’s still in the struggle for his grand babies; families honking and throwing up fists from their cars; teens dancing and singing; folks handing out water bottles and food. We marched from US Bank Stadium to the middle of highway 35W and knelt for a moment of silence for George Floyd.

As we were still on the ground, many of us kneeling and sitting, I glanced behind me to abruptly see panicking and screaming. We jumped up and dispersed with the crowd. All I could think of was finding my wife and protecting her. We clung to each other and ran as far off of the highway as we could. Within minutes, dozens of police vehicles showed up and, as we stood in shock at the edge of the highway, one vehicle needlessly sprayed us with mace. Choking and sneezing, we hopped a nearby fence to get even farther away.

As we walked down town to get to our car, already frazzled, folks kept warning us not to go down certain streets because they saw armed white supremacists waiting.

Thankfully, good friends came and gave us a ride to our car. We’re home and safe now.

I say all this to let folks know our message of justice and peace is being strategically infiltrated by white supremacists and police officers. This isn’t anything new. This has always happened throughout history. Plenty of others will confirm this has happened and is continuing to happen.

My body is tense and my system is on fire. I feel angry—yet resilient and determined. Because I know there are more people taking care of each other and working to end systems of oppression than there are people trying to incite violence and fear. And I believe that we will win.

-Joseph Micheal Davis

#BlackLivesMatter #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd

i don't have a poem, but a plea.

hello poetry is an escape from real life for a lot of us, me included, but real life needs us right now.

the #blacklivesmatter movement is louder than ever and if you're not a person of color, or if you are but you also benefit from the system in place that depends on the destruction of black and brown people, now is your time to stand up.

stand with those at the protests, use your voice, your platform, your privilege to raise up your fellow black voices. and educate yourself on whats going on if you haven't already, because this is just the beginning.

this is global now. all over the world people in countries like UK, Germany, Canada, and many others are taking to the streets in a peaceful protest of the ****** of Georgoe Floyd, and so so many other Black men and women. a protest of the blatent police brutality in cities all over the world, brutality that mainly targets black skinned and brown skinned people. a protest for real honest ******* change, that will ripple through country to country.

this is a revolution. do not be silent.

go out and protest if you can. donate to the georgefloyd gofundme, to the bail outs for the protesters who were wrongfully arrested. spread awareness where you can. lift up black and other poc voices, and don't give up.

Blackness has nothing to do with how I walk or talk
We may have those things in common
Blackness has nothing to do with what I consume
Though we may have those things in common
Blackness has nothing to do with who I vote for
Or who I date
Black is a color
Nothing more
Nothing less
Born with the right to express myself on any human level
On any side of the wide spectrum
One of many who has walked this earth to witness the misled tonedeaf who in recent history call themselves white
Who oddly believe that they are called right
And at the right place & time
I will be wrong.

Let me tell y’all something:
The white man don’t care about our suffering.
The privilege is too bright to see us.

The white man don’t care about us.
The white man wants to see us get shot,
The white man wants to see us wither and perish.

But who built America on their backs,
Bare handed, and
Whipped into submission?

We did.

We will take back America.
We will take back our streets,
Paved with the blood and tears of our people.
This is our America.

Not whitewashed and stained red with racism.

This is your America.
Where when we say, “Stop! Don’t shoot!”
You shoot anyways.

This is your America.
Where when we say, “I can’t breathe.“
You continue to suffocate us.

This is your America.
Where when we say, “Help.”
You continue to let us suffer.

This is your America.
Where the president calls us thugs,
And threatens to shoot us and our freedom.

This is not my America.

This is your America.
Where you shoot us for having cell phones.
Where you terrorize our sons and daughters.
Where you **** us for being black.

Who gonna protect us?
Not cops drunk on their own power and superiority.
Not the president blinded by racism.
Not our white “allies” who stand by and watch us burn.

But if we burn,
You burn with us.

If you **** us,
You die with us.

We tried peace,
We tried awareness,
But we always end up with violence.

We’re scared,
But who can blame us?

You’re killing us with your American Dream,
You’re murdering us with your American Dream,
You’re suffocating us with your American Dream.

This is your America—
Not mine.

We will take back America.
We will take back our freedom
Or we will die trying.
And that is the American Dream.

Today I speak with heavy heart
Red as the crimson drips after picking up pieces of shattered glass
I sat for an hour or so on my kitchen floor a broken soul
Have I failed you? Because I know I failed myself
What else is there to do after a war torn path leaves nothing but dust and ash?
I am on all fours in grief
Numbness to the pain has worn off
I am open
But am I free?
I hope I can repair these damages
I want my future to be free
But for now all I can do is pray for air

open your eyes
we're living in 
a colonized culture
built upon 
oppression and lies

coincidence
no
this is
injustice faced
due to someone’s race

i'm white, my skin is just pale enough that if you squint just right you can't even see the brown lying underneath.
i'm white, and i feel my privilege like a vice around my wrists, holding me hostage in my fantasy that i just wasn't made for this activist ****.
but i'm not like those white oppressors, because i don't believe as they do; silence is a form of oppression, so guess what that makes you?
i am guilty of closing my eyes so often i may as well be blind, and holy ******* **** THIS HAS HAPPENED TOO MANY TIMES!
we all know at this point that justice isn't being served, and you've surely heard the terms, reactionary solidarity it means we as the privileged only care when the oppressed scream so loud we hear them across the seas, see their smoke signals above the trees, when mothers and sisters on crying on their knees