Big White Lies
Kari is mad as hell! Violence against BIPOC has survived too long. Justice is a human right.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - The Other America, 1967
Where once lived the American dream
Now lays the American lie.
Freedom and liberty for all?
Many Americans insist this exists,
But, they turn from the truth.
Liberty is given to the white
While BIPOC are just given the Li.
Justice is not equal,
The only blind eye she turns is for the rich.
The scales are tipped in white favor.
I know a little of the injustice,
(I am a woman, held back and held down.)
But, not the magnitude.
I taught my kids that the police
Is who you go to for help.
Never imagining the need
To teach extra manners
To avoid death through confrontation.
It is past time for talks
Used by old white men
to make themselves seem reasonable
The winter of delay must end.
Action is required and
we know it can be done.
But still old white men
Like Mitch McConnell
Hold us down.
We weary of asking.
The same thing was asked in the 1990s
When Rodney King was murdered.
In the 2000s many were murdered.
Some died using the same last words.
"I can't breathe."
We must see what is true,
No longer denying.
White people wake up!
We must stand united
with our human family.
Knowing we are all together
Not accepting the lie
All will magically be better.
We forget our own role.
Never trying to fix.
Always shoving band-aids on
And calling it done.
Old white men, trying
To gloss over the facts.
Giving excuses
and starting studies.
"It was unavoidable."
Murder!? Unavoidable!??
The old white men do not care.
We are just "human capital stock"
Our rulers are oblivious to
The normal American suffering.
How can they rule us without
Knowing the difficulties of life.
All the rich know is that
Homeless people are lazy
And unmotivated.
Mexicans are rapists and thieves.
Black people do not have
Enough brains to think logically.
They are only good for sports and war.
But these are American lies.
Big white lies that the rich
Tell their children
To perpetuate their rule.
Ohio by Neil Young
© 2020 Kari Poulsen