Speaks Beliefs: Wordplay

the gravity of inequity

Posted in African Diaspora, History, Social Commentary, Spoken Word, dope poets society by Speaks Beliefs on January 24, 2010

5 comments

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  1. Crystal Belle said, on January 24, 2010 at 5:37 pm

    FIRE! this poem makes me SOOOOO HAPPY! great collabo once again!

    Reply
    • Speaks Beliefs said, on January 24, 2010 at 5:52 pm

      honored to write with you once more. i had the 1st 2 lines stuck in my head for days and i couldn’t generate anymore. i knew just who to go to. you. and then that thing happened. that thing that i can’t explain. the way words flow when collaborate. thank you!

      Reply
  2. A. Jarrell Hayes said, on January 25, 2010 at 9:24 am

    The line “walk four hundred years in our skin” is a powerful image and the line “you must be saved while we enslave you” is a brilliant paradox. Ah, I could go on and on. Just a great piece.

    Reply
  3. salaamfreeland said, on January 25, 2010 at 10:47 am

    Peace Crystal and Speaks,

    I read this last night before I went to bed, and woke up this morning still thinking about it. It’s a poem that saddens me.

    “You’ll see through eyes behind the flesh that you detest”

    It saddens me because it is the 21st century, and yet still the ‘gravity of inequality’ has to be spelled out; and ‘take a walk in our shoes’ devices have to be employed in order to make the ‘Caucasian political body’ acknowledge the pain that continues to reverberate so strongly today. And I say the Caucasian political body because Race is politics, and as a Race the collective conscience of White people is (politically) incorrect. Our educational systems (world-wide), our politics and commonsense are tainted with Racism. Some individuals see this, acknowledge this and work against it, but on the whole we just don’t get it. Unseen is the umbilical cord of our nations past that feeds us the privileges of status, comfort, wealth, health and pride. A cord that not only feeds our sense of humanity, belonging and worth but a cord which acts as a siphon drawing the very same sense of humanity, belonging and worth etc. from a Black collective: Racism.

    Your poem is an echo. But it’s not an echo that is fading. It is an echo that is getting louder (or should be getting louder). It’s a song I was awoken to 20 years ago, from an echo that had been reverberating for 100s of years. It’s a song that has been fuel for change and will continue to serve as fuel for the changes that still need to come. It is the song of struggle. A struggle that on the whole White people deem to be won, or pointless; a figment of imagination. They’re blinded by Racism and they don’t even know it. Here is illumination.

    A beautifully written poem.

    Thanks.

    P.S. I might wanna revise the term ‘Caucasian political body’ as it just came to me writing this comment. But for the time being, it made sense to me and I hope it conveyed my meaning.

    Reply
  4. Joy said, on February 24, 2010 at 3:17 am

    SB and Crystal, once again a brilliant work that reduced me to tears. I walked out of the movie “Cry Freedom” in tears and feeling deeply ashamed of my skin colour! I feel similarly after reading this poem. Racism, prejudice, inequality and the abuse of human rights are heinous and disgraceful, not to mention totally absurd, and I dream of a world where discrimination doesnt exist.

    Reply

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