Senior Project: The World Through My Eyes

Riddle me this...

What the hell did we do to deserve this aside from

Just

living?

Are we really so i n t i m i d a t i n g because our skin looks like it's made of shadows?

If our roles were reversed as well as the history would you understand how we feel? Would you also riot?

When will you open your eyes and see us as fellow humans, because WE ARE?

When are we allowed to break our invisible chains and live freely? Why are you so angry at us? When did we hurt you? When will we be allowed to b r e a t h e ?

Will I have to teach my kids what my parents taught me?

To never look a cop in the eye, always keep your hands up, speak loudly, and speak clearly, not too loud though, we don't want to scare the cops and make them shoot, always ask before you move and ask twice before you do just to make sure they heard you and when your about to be pulled over always have your phone on record as your protection and proof, Let the white man know "Sir, it's just a brush."

....Will my children, like I, have this s i c k a n x i e t y that smothers you and sits on your chest like you can't breathe whenever they are in a room filled with whites?

Will I have to explain to them why their teachers look at them with d i s g u s t and punish them for no reason and embarrass them for no reason like my baby brothers did?

Will I have to be p a r a n o i d when my children go out and always say "I love you" twice before they leave as my parents do with me? We never know if our children will come back to us.

Will I have to explain to them why they get l o o k s whenever they go to the store or questioned and patted down if they go in without buying anything as if they steal?

Will we go to jail or be arrested or be beaten and abused for no reason other than because we look like a suspect, we look like we did something when really we're treated like this because we look different?

When we stand up for ourselves will we be called animals? Dirty? Crazy? Homeless because God forbid your black and wearing street clothes with a couple of bags in your hand, anyone would think your homeless or a drug dealer, or both.

Will my kids be bullied for their hue?

Will your white kids tell my black ones that their "great, great grandad owned your great, great grandad"? I'll never forget when one of your kids said that to me.

Will they be questioned about our hair and be surrounded by nothing but "oooh can I feel it" or "Why does it stand up like that?

Will our voices be ignored forever and those that dare speak, stomped out?

Will they be experimented on? Will they be examined like they were brought up in a test tube? (No we will NEVER forget that)

Will my kids be h a r a s s e d because of our c u r v e s and bullied because of our big and natural lips only for yours to p a y to look like us?

Will we always have to walk with friends when we go out because we're too scared to walk alone, just in case? Will they be minding their own business when suddenly a car full of nothing but "Chads" and "Bradys" throw stuff at you and call you our your name?

Will they be h a u n t e d by the word "Nigger"? It's ok though right because we call our selves "Niggers".

Wrong! We call ourselves "Niggas" and we use that as empowerment.

From you, it's a whip but from us, it's a strength that comes with the knowledge that we're almost free.

No, you cannot have the "Nigger pass".

Will their thoughts and ideas and culture be stripped away?

Will our hair products and our inventions and our music and our food and our clothes and our dances and our stores and our profits be stolen and given a stupid name and be sold by you?

All of these questions and so many more, and no answers.

Well at least riddle me this...

Why does our b l a c k n e s s scare you?

How and why are WE such a threat?