I Thought It Was Over
The Jim Crow laws are eradicated
Slavery is eradicated
No one shouted slurs at me on the street
I didn’t have to fear white people when I walked outside
In second grade
I could sit directly next to a white, blonde-haired girl my age
And say “hi.”
And she said it back
Without contempt
I thought it was over
Because I learned about the heroes that helped make my life possible
Because my elementary school never treated me
Like elementary school treated Ruby Bridges
Because I could be friends with white people
And no one would care
Because I was a child
Born in the early 2000s
Who had no idea that the fight was still going
I thought it was over
Until Freddie Gray.
Hearing about how he was attacked by police officers for no good reason
Hearing how they threw his head into the wall
How they tased the shit out of him
How he died because of what they did to him
I started seeing protests in my city
And even then it didn’t click
Until my dad brought me to a protest at City Hall
And I saw with my own eyes
That it’s the same.
Not much was different
From the Jim Crow laws
I thought it was over
But this country is still against us.
Black people who dare to “step out of their place”
Are beaten and killed
With little to no consequences.
A white person in legal possession of a knife would’ve been left alone
Freddie Gray was in legal possession of a knife and they killed him.
I thought it was over
But so many others have been mistreated and murdered
Because we’re black people
And America doesn’t trust black people
America doesn’t love black people
America hates black people.
I thought it was over
And that was naive.
It’s not over
There is still so much work to be done
There are still so many more thresholds we must cross
For them to finally see us as people
I thought it was over
But I fear it may never be over.
