We Hold These Truths...

 [I posted this on Facebook last year, and it's a good time to post it today, because nothing much has changed. And all of us weren't free July 4, 1776.]

We hold these hard truths to be self evident:

That your forefathers claimed all men were created equal,

But said my forefathers were less than human and therefore property;

That you praise Lincoln for freeing the slaves,

When he didn't care either way, as long as the Union was saved;

That when the slaves were free, you turned your slave catchers into cops,

And created the prison system to put my forefathers right back into slavery.

We hold these truths to be self evident:

That your forefathers claimed all men were created equal,

And that Black people need to pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps,

But I don't recall anyone giving out the boots after emancipation was proclaimed;

Matter of fact, only the slave masters got reparations for the loss of their "property,"

But all men are created equal.

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

That this country was built with the blood, sweat, and tears of Black people,

On top of the bones, blood, and tears of the Indigenous;

Your forefathers said all men are created equal,

But you paved our paradise to put up Central Park in New York and bombed our Wall Street to appease the virtue of some fragile white woman in Tulsa and emptied a whole pool because a black woman dipped her toe in the water;

All men are created equal, but the father of modern gynecology treated black women like lab rats who can't possibly feel pain,

And his mindset continues to kill black women to this day;

All men are created equal, but they're even killing our children,

Because black children aren't allowed to just be children, so Mommy and Daddy have to sit them down for The Talk before they go outside to play.

We hold these truths to be self evident:

That all men are created equal, but red-lining and gerrymandering exist;

All men are created equal, but my parents were in segregated schools;

All men are created equal, but you're scared to say racism still exists;

All men are created equal, but turn on the fire hoses, release the dogs, throw the tear gas, get the pepper spray, they doth protest too much;

We hold these hard truths to be self-evident:

That this country wasn't built for all men,

And it's time to pick it up by its bootstraps, turn it upside down, knock out all the excuses, lies, the status quo, the racists, the gaslighters, and this jerry-rigged system,

And start over so we all can pursue life, liberty, and the justice we so deserve.