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Rebellion

Writer's picture: Olyvia MilesOlyvia Miles

Updated: Jun 2, 2020

Do you hear me now?

All it took was fires being set, cars being turned over.

A little glass breaking of businesses, and traffic shutdowns.

This country was built on the back of our ancestors, enslaved Africans.

This country has a history of violence.

This country has never atoned for its original sin.


Do you hear me now? Please,

Black people had to endure 400 years of chattel slavery.

The slave codes, slave revolts, being considered less than a whole person, shit less than human.

The Emancipation Proclamation supposedly freed us, but did it?

There were laws enacted to imprison Black people who had no job, just to be farmed our back to the plantation they used to be held as property.

There were whole communities decimated because of jealous white folks not thinking Black people deserved the material things they had from their hard work and success.


Can you hear me now? Please, I

Black men had to pay a poll tax and prove they could read in order to cast a vote.

There was intimidation to keep Black men from voting because while Black people were considered only three fifths of human, black women were even less than that.

Black people endured the erection of statues of treasonous traitors many years after the south lost the Civil War.

Black endured that fucking racist ass Confederate flag that people are claiming is a sign of southern heritage and pride.

Black people endured The Jim Crow Era.

Crosses being burned on front lawns by cowards in white bed sheets.

Black churches were burned down.

Black men were dragged out of their homes, lynched, and their genitals cut off.

By the way what was the fascination with a black man penis?

Can you hear me now? Please, I can’t

Black people had to endure discrimination and segregation.

Nothing was equal about separate but equal. Not then and certainly not now.

Black people have fought to see justice in an unjust court system that was not designed for black people to win.

Black people endured marches for a right to be treated fairly and afforded the same opportunities that their white counterparts have.

Black people endured dog attacks, being sprayed with water hoses, being hit, and being spat upon and they still tried to maintain peace.

Black people have always been un or underemployed.

Overlooked for promotions, and out right not hired because of the color of their skin.

Black people have endure crack and heroin being funneled into their communities.

Black have endured being the United States guinea pigs for disease and social experiments.

Black people survived everything that has been thrown at them.

Police brutality is nothing new. Black people being killed while being unarmed is nothing new. Black people marching for a better tomorrow for our kids is nothing new.

Black people being lied on is nothing new.

You don’t fear for your life, you know black folks are a peaceful people.

What you fear is black unity.

What you fear is black people coming together to make that economic boycott come to fruition.

What you fear is another Montgomery Bus Boycott.

What you fear is Black people treating you the way you treated them for all these centuries.

You fear that you will be replaced or worst erased.

Nothing black people do is good enough we march we get beaten in the streets and pulled out of our homes.

We protest silently by taking a knee, we are met with we aren’t patriotic and if we don’t like it we can go back to Africa.

We protest with rallies and speeches, the agitators come in and make it a riot.

So now we are rioting for justice.

We are rioting for peace. We are rioting for equality.

Can you hear me now?


Please, I can’t breathe!


o.flows.up



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