Black Boy Poems

by Tyson Amir

  The black community also started to capitalize on industrial dollars. Detroit had the largest black middle class ever seen in America because of the automotive industry. This money was invested in black businesses and black children, children who eventually went on to obtain diplomas, certifications, and degrees. Many historians will cite the return of black soldiers from World War II as a potential starting point for the civil rights movement. Black soldiers adorned themselves in the government-issued uniforms of the US of A, and they bravely fought and died for “liberty, freedom, justice, and equality” in America, but upon return they were greeted with the cold shoulder of state sponsored Jim Crow. In that moment, so many of them realized that in the eyes of America, Black Lives did not matter. We mattered enough to populate the military and fight and die at Uncle Sam's behest, but Uncle Sam and all of America's self-righteous rhetoric of justice, freedom, and equality for all was nowhere to be found when black people needed it.

  These men also returned with tales of their experiences as black men in foreign lands. The message began to spread throughout parts of the black community that a black man could be treated as a man in parts of Europe. All of these elements coalesced and formed a strong current that began surging through Black America. This wasn't the black community that experienced the end of slavery via the Thirteenth Amendment. This was an entirely different black community, a new Negro. This was a black community that had heard America promise them freedom, liberty, and justice for all but saw the hollow emptiness of those promises. This was also a black community that had enriched itself with knowledge, courage, faith, cultural pride, and dignity to do something about America's all too familiar deaf ears.

  This is the world that King emerged from. Armed with his belief in God, his people, and mankind, he marched forward to play his role in the struggle. On that momentous day in 1963, King approached the podium under the shadows of the Lincoln Memorial, overlooking the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool, and told the world about his dream.

  The dream of being fully integrated and incorporated into a society is understandable, but how does one reach that when the hatred for your kind is deeply embedded in the soul of the country? What type of life is a person capable of in the face of that reality? Dreamers dream; it's what must be done. For a dreamer, the dream is necessary, like breathing is necessary for survival. Sadly, some of us dream dreams that are not made for our time and place. The dream of King on those steps that day is right; it's just; it's moral. It is what America should be, but hate and greed are irrational and very powerful. They can look at what is right and moral and ignore it to preserve self, especially when it is a hatred and greed woven deep inside the core of a society. America's greatness depends on the degradation of black lives. You can't deify the "Founding Fathers" if you are honest about their racism, sexism, rapist behavior, xenophobia, and hatred for the indigenous peoples of these lands. You can't celebrate achievements of industrial America when, once you brush the dust off the surface, you begin to find that it was built with coerced slave labor and the state-sponsored eradication of indigenous populations.

  When I was younger, I was caught up in some imagined beef between Malcolm and Martin. It was like the ’90s East Coast-West Coast hip-hop beef. I was in the camp of Malcolm. I'm still in the camp of Malcolm, but I love, respect, and benefit from King as well. It took me a while to fully appreciate the genius and commitment of King. That doesn't mean that I do not have a critique of some of his stances, but he was truly a man who lived and died for his people. He was sincere in his effort, and I love him for that. I am in awe of his commitment to non-violence in the face of such a brutal and inhumane system. I respect his vision of a dream for his people and America.

  In an honest moment, I don't think there is anyone who cannot sympathize with his dream for black people in America. Who wouldn't regardless of color want to be judged for their character instead of some naturally occurring genetic marker? Who wants to live in a land where a complete false narrative sentences you to a lower quality of life because of the color of your skin or some other arbitrary descriptor? People want a society that respects them and their children, and allows them to be successful and pursue happiness. If you subtract out all the politics, religious debates, and economic theories you're left with the basic essence of what any social solution looks like. King had the audacity to say that in a racially charged America. He proclaimed a great dream, but as the poem details, we've witnessed the continuation of the long dark nightmare that America has given to blacks.

  I'm a by-product of America's horrendous appropriation and clumsy application of King's dream. I technically live in an integrated society. King in his speech believed that complete integration is where white and black America needed to go to help answer the problems blacks faced. King was incredibly intelligent; I don't believe he was shortsighted or ill-prepared for the dilemma black people faced in America. I know he knew America could still find a way around enforcing policies of justice and equality. He lived through Brown v. Board of Education. The decisions were passed down in 1954 and 1955; he was still fighting to desegregate public accommodations well into the 1960s. Integration has not brought America any closer to our beloved Dr. King's dream. Our society is still broken along the poisonous fault lines of "race." We are nowhere closer to resolving this issue. It is my opinion that America is not interested in full equality and inclusion of black people and other minority groups. My reason for thinking that is the fact that the dominant paradigm of America is at stake, and as King stated, " We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." The power structure in America has no interest in sharing what they have with anyone else. And at this point in time, they have no reason to, either.

  Power will not concede power without force. We can demand it all we want, but America is unwilling to give in. If the power concedes, then what does it become? That answer is what America is fighting tooth and nail to avoid. Being integrated does nothing to erode the foundation of the white power structure in America. Being allowed to sit in the school, bus, or restaurant is something, but the power is in owning the restaurant, building, block, streets, and everything else. That is where the true power lies. We got our vote, desegregated schools, and public accommodations, but white America still owns every aspect of the world we live in. They will not give up that power. This is where the dream is deficient. The dream is rational and moral; it does not account for the greed and hatred in the hearts of men and women who want to protect their wealth and power. The hate in the response to the dream is the fuel to maintain the racial apparatus of power and domination. The hate is necessary, and as long as it is present, there is no equality through integration. They will use the hate to ignore, discard, or change the rules whenever they want to. The dreamers want peace, freedom, and equality, while those in power want to maintain power and control of wealth at all costs.

  This poem was written in 2001 approaching the fortieth anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” speech. The “I Have a Dream” speech has become synonymous with the "success" of the civil rights movement and is used by white society as the calendric beginning of a post-racial America. They freeze King in that moment as if starting the following day, blacks and whites lived happily ever after. This was not the case. In fact, a little more than two weeks after the march on Washington, the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed by white supremacist terrorists in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four little girls: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair.

  In my opinion, the “I Have a Dream” speech is a great piece of revolutionary oratory. King was blessed with that, and you have to respect the courage he had to speak his truth to power. What I attempted to capture in my poem was some of what had transpired in America since his famous speech. I wrote it to update King on what our people have been going through since that moment in August of 1963. I reference many histor
ical events that took place right after the march up until the present. The poetic attempt was made to show the fight for civil rights and the fight for racial equality has not gone in our favor. In some respects, we might be worse off than in 1963. That point is debatable; I have no intention of trying to convince anyone of either perspective, but the point remains the "struggle" is far from over. Our existence is still very dangerous, deadly, and painful, and "integration" into the American mainstream has not netted the result many of us had hoped for.

  W. E. B Du Bois' famous work, The Souls of Black Folks, begins with the prophetic warning that, "The problem of the 20th century will be that of the color line." Du Bois knew that the racial hatred in America would be the seminal obstacle continuing to bar blacks from society. Du Bois was writing in the late 1890s but his words were certainly true for the twentieth century, as well as for what we've witnessed here in the twenty-first century. We can still dream the dream, but now that we've lived through four centuries of this land, we need to update that dream to truly fit our time and place. The color line is not going away any time soon. The hatred, greed, injustice, and racism are just as real and vicious. Our people need help, and America is not interested in helping. Integration has not been the solution to our problems. We have to go back to the drawing board and dream a new dream and then feverishly work to establish it here for our sake and that of our posterity.

  Between Huey and Malcolm (2015)

  Dr. Huey P. Newton had an epiphany when he once said, “I do not expect the white media to create positive black male images.”

  He wouldn't be surprised to see how

  Evening networks

  accumulate their net worth

  of billions

  off assassinating the character of our children.

  They objectively report the news about black lives

  matter

  of factly

  they spin white lies

  that evolve into black lies

  about black lives

  because we don't matter to them

  only in terms of

  their bottom line.

  Our worth in their eyes

  is somewhere between

  feline and pigeon.

  Y'all we still less than k-9

  because ninjas remember how they sent that boy Mike Vick to prison

  but be the color of George Zimmerman

  a private citizen

  and you can legally murder a nigga

  and walk off Scott free,

  but Walter Scott can't flee

  and Eric garner can't breathe,

  and Tyisha Miller can't sleep

  and Oscar Grant can't see his daughter no more.

  This ain't folklore.

  Oh no, there's so much more

  Four score and 7 years ago

  nah, before that

  1619

  the first time these white beings

  brought us to these shores

  and since then it's been

  all out war.

  Their strategies and tactics have adapted,

  They went from de jure to de facto,

  ipso facto

  they've tormented and attacked us

  to extinguish the light of black souls.

  Theirs is a pathological praxis

  rooted in a xenophobic,

  schizophrenic,

  racially insecure

  culturally immature social apparatus

  forcing them to concoct a reality

  that confers to them an unearned status

  of unmerited advantage

  to make them feel adequate.

  In turn

  we are termed

  the thugs and the savages.

  The whole deck stacked against us

  we victims of bell curves

  intelligent quotient averages,

  recipients of jail terms

  residents of a ghetto pan's labyrinth.

  Very few can survive the madness.

  And for those that do

  government issued bullets

  fly faster than light travels from the sun to our planet.

  That 3rd rock from the sun.

  Got me Malcolm in the middle,

  nah, I'm Malcolm in the window

  on third watch

  watching over our daughters and sons.

  Kalashnikov 47 cocked for them when they come

  and we know

  they will come

  because for us

  this land is a Robert Kirkman graphic novel

  for it feeds off the blood of our young

  We

  are

  the walking dead.

  Just channeling our inner Tyrese

  Because we’re not destined to make it past

  the first few letter boxes of the first few sheets

  We

  are

  akin to proteins and fatty lipids in the belly of the beast.

  Our appendages

  are the meat of fleshy mangoes stuck in teeth

  to be plucked and sucked in

  moments after the feast

  now let that digest

  I know these words hit hard to the gut like dysentery

  or hard to the brain

  like religious missionaries colonizing souls and minds

  no matter how you reduce it,

  pain is the protocol

  you either die or revoke your past

  and try to pass for something you’re not

  on that Rachel Dolezal

  but y’all

  we can't opt out,

  can't drop out,

  especially when them cops is out

  index itchy when them guns come out

  we go to sleep dreaming at night wishing it would all run out

  and be replaced by something different when the sun comes out.

  But day breaks

  and the morning is here

  and we find ourselves

  in mourning again

  and I don't want to see

  any more mornings

  where we mourning kith and kin

  So I guess it means

  that we back on that Malcolm again

  In essence it only means we want one thing.

  We declare our right on this earth to be a man,

  to be a human being,

  to be respected as a human being,

  to be given the rights of a human being

  in this society,

  on this earth,

  in this day,

  which we intend to bring

  into existence by any means necessary!

  ________________________________________________________________________

  Reflections of a Black Boy:

  “I will fight until I die, however that may come. But whether I'm around or not to see it happen, I know that the transformation of society inevitably will manifest the true meaning of 'all power to the people.”' - Dr. Huey P. Newton

  ________________________________________________________________________

  This poem right here was my poetic attempt at destroying the racist white supremacist power structure that is killing off this planet with one pen stroke. I tried to channel the spirit of all the ancestors and hurl their energy at the world because there is no telling how much time I have left. In whatever time I have remaining I want to create the purest and most quality work I can produce for the sake of my people's liberation. I know poetry alone cannot destroy this racist power structure but it can be a powerful tool in communicating a correct understanding of our condition and need to fight. That is the raw force behind “Between Huey and Malcolm.”

  What must become clear to us all is the fact that the hopes and dreams of white America are superficial in nature and are only possible because they are falsely propped up by the "American Way," which is undergirded with the very real application of systemic racism, discrimination, and exploitation. There is no American dream without th
e rape and pillage of black bodies for centuries. There is no American dream without the barbaric annihilation of indigenous populations of this land. There is no America without any of that. And for those who might be confused, there is no black liberation in America or the liberation of any people throughout the world without the dismantling of that entire system.

  Instead of embracing all of those ugly truths about who and what they are, America as an institution and white Americans as a people mass-produce an artificial narrative to put themselves at ease. They become a little liberal with the story, too. They are quite adept at presenting their view of historical fiction as fact. Their idea seems to be a hint of historical embellishment makes the evil not taste so bitter. The problem with all of this lying is that once the lie starts they have to continuously lie to themselves about how righteous and honorable they are in acquiring and maintaining their empire.

  White folks today try to recuse themselves from the horrors of the past and present by claiming they didn't do it. They weren't the slave owners or architects of the racist apparatus. However, they gladly reap the benefits of white privilege and supremacy. So much so that the median net worth of a white household headed by a person who did not, I repeat, did not complete high school is one-third higher than the median net worth of a black household headed by someone with a college degree. If we were to examine income inequality further, we would see more evidence of how the people who claim "they didn't do it" or they "didn't own any slaves," profit heavily from the system that they also claim to not perpetuate, while black people and other people of color still struggle. Being white in America means it doesn't matter if you're a high school dropout or highly educated; your privilege will guarantee that you will always fair better than your black counterpart or black superior. It's their game and they crafted it so they'll always win. How do you ignore such glaring discrepancies? What does a person, culture, or society have to do to act as if this blatant inequity is okay? The answer is constantly on display outside American windows. White society has erected a social culture filled with trivial pursuits and blinding distractions to occupy their minds instead of objectively analyzing the American experience. Because if they didn't, then they would see that they are not innocent. For the sake of white society that cannot be tolerated. They would crumble under the weight of their guilt if they truly acknowledge the evil they've manufactured for their little heads to rest comfortably at night. The famous slave owning and slave raping president Thomas Jefferson once said in his thoughts on America and its practice of slavery that, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is Just; that his justice cannot sleep forever." Thomas Jefferson knew he and this country were guilty, and it’s that guilt that America works so hard to hide from its guilt.