By Tiara Risby
They say they’re there to protect us from danger but who will protect us from them?
The only danger I sense is a man abusing his power abusing our people
I fear every time my brother leaves the house he’ll become a piece of meat that the boys in blue are so eager to sink their teeth into
Their metal canines pierce deep into the flesh of his black skin that rips as his body goes cold from the heat of hot lead
Stopping the beautiful melody that is the beat of his heart
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/opinion/the-sins-of-the-chicago-police-laid-bare.html
Headline “Black Boy in America killed by police… he was unarmed
His pockets as bare as black bodies, stripped and beating by white robed men resembling the blue boys who will continue to beat black bodies and strip them of life
Slave slave ships took our ancestors away from their homes
Ships now turned to white trucks with sirens the same sound as mothers crying
As her sons, her husband, our daddies, and uncles
Are taken away from their homes in body bags
Black like the street on which lifeless brown bodies lay leaving behind painful memories of cocoa colored men, women, and children left in the streets of Selma
Gunned down for standing up for their lives
Headline “Black Boy Dead in Zion”
His body left to dry up like a raisin in the son
Blood Langston Hughes of red
All of his dreams of life left deferred
His flesh begins to stink like rotten meat
Yet still, there is no justice for Justus in a world where breath can’t go breathless by the same whips that stole the voices of our people turned nightsticks that takes the voices of us now
I Can’t Breathe
There’s no justice for Justus ‘cus in this world it’s just us
They say they’re there to stop crime
So when did slaying a human being exceed the morals of that definition?
Your badge is not a golden ticket to do what you want to black people
What if we should stripped you of gold star and mistreated you’ve done us for years
Then maybe you’ll feel the pain of our tears
Headline “Black Boy Murdered in Zion”
By the same men who were supposed to save him from danger
But sadly, no one could save him from them
No Justus
Tiara Risby is a first generation low-income student at Wharton with a passion for minimizing racial disparities. She is also the ‘21-‘22 President of the Glorious Gamma Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.