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The Eclectic Pen - WHAT CAME BEFORE, OR THE BLACK EXPERIENCE AS TOLD IN ONE PAGE WITH MANY OMISSIONS BY A WHITE PERSON


By: Nora F. (nora777)   + 58 more  
Date Submitted: 8/3/2020
Last Updated: 8/30/2020
Genre: Literature & Fiction » Poetry
Words: 272
Rating:


  abduction
death march to the coast
waiting in dreadful dungeons for the dreaded unknown
the middle passage
for the survivors: arrival in the “new world”
the auction block
money changes hands
work from dawn to dusk
work to exhaustion
work unpaid for centuries
random violence
resistance: the underground railroad, escape, rebellion

A MOMENT OF HOPE
emancipation! freedom!
a few years of federal troops protecting rights
40 acres and a mule … whoops!

america gets bored and federal troops leave, no acres, no mule
jim crow takes over
sharecropping
lynchings
pogroms

A MOMENT OF HOPE
brown v. board of education

redlining
private “academies”
rise of the “suburbs”
16th street baptist church bombing
segregation now, segregation tamorra, segregation foreva

A MOMENT OF HOPE
civil rights act
voting rights act
freedom summer

deaths of james chaney, andrew goodman, michael schwerner
assassinations of martin luther king and malcolm x
1968 election
southern strategy, law and order, silent majority

A MOMENT OF HOPE
black power!
black panthers
DIY free breakfast program for kids

war on drugs
war on crime
war on the poor
mass incarceration
school to prison pipeline
random humiliations and lynchings by cops
a long list of mournful names
children arrested by cops in school for scribbling on desks, crying

A MOMENT OF HOPE
president obama
the beer summit
obamacare
civil rights division enforces the law

rise of the terrifying orangeman
make america great again
um when exactly was america great
2 more mournful names: george floyd and breonna taylor
america suddenly notices that black lives matter: a moment of hope, or another variation on the old theme?


The Eclectic Pen » All Stories by Nora F. (nora777)

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