Hate Crime:
*A crime motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudice, typically involving violence*
Hate crime like a poison running through your blood
Like a cloud of rage before an incompetent mind
Like the media force feeding us word play stereotypes until we are so blinded, we begin to believe that the color of your skin dictates the nature of your crime.
I will not be enslaved by your excuses like a sedative to my rebellious tongue
Don’t force me to swallow their deaths like a bitter pill of an inevitable end
Looking through the bloodied hands of a white man, asking are they worth a press release?
DNA dirtied by extra melanin
Blood cheapened by our foreign tongues
It seems we are only worthy of your attention when we stand behind the gun
Digging up defenses like a slap to our faces
Tell me, when was the last time you murdered someone over parking spaces?
When was the last time someone labeled a white criminal a terrorist?
When was the last time they blamed black crime on mental illness?
And why is it that only for a Muslim criminal will they mention religion?
Let me ask you this:
What crime did we commit by pulling up our hoods or adorning our headscarves?
What crime did we commit other than being anything other than pure white European descendants?
They despise us for our immigrant status,
But have they forgotten they were once immigrants too?
This country is corrupted by white privilege handcuffs
Contaminated with ignorance perpetuated by censored information
And intoxicated with suit-wearing, upper class thievery
So excuse me for hesitating to pledge allegiance to the United States of Aspersions
Yet still, I have faith that goodness runs in the very veins of our country
So next time we get shot in your darkest alleyways
I hope we won’t have to remind you that we bleed the brightest red
Just. Like. You.
That we need these breaths of oxygen
Just. Like. You.
That WE deserve to live.
Just. Like. You.
