7. Guns Where Hearts Should Be

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AS THE HUMAN SKIN gains melanin and darkens like the sky after a sunset, people cower

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AS THE HUMAN SKIN gains melanin and darkens like the sky after a sunset, people cower. It isn't beautiful, it's intimidating. Children are warned and parents are uneasy. Because as a black man in today's society, our politeness can be mistaken as conning and our hoodie is but a disguise.

Due to the belief that black men are nothing but evolved criminals, we are imagined with a pocket knife twining through our fingers and a gun where our hearts should be. So fathers look out for their daughters and teachers keep watchful eyes. Because black boys are on the hunt. Black boys are incapable of empathy. Black boys are incapable of humanity.

But as the human skin gains melanin, backs are turned on the unfortunate. In past years we've been shoved to the outskirts of their society. So a black man with a gun then, was simply a man fending off a society that would deny him everything. Or fighting for a family his country wouldn't allow to get an education. The weapon was more delighted to see him than his own neighbor.

A black man with a gun now, is simply hurt.

The weapon hasn't replaced his heart, it's only defending it.

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