Welcome to Day 6 of the April Write 2012 – the Poets Jubilee Olympiad.
Today, I’m most honoured to introduce Guest Host, Zita Holbourne, with her visual and audio inspiration.
Zita’s topic and your title for Day 6 of the 5th Annual April Write is “Injustice and Racism”
Please WATCH the video (link below), to hear Zita recite her poem and see her painting, which I hope will inspire your creativity today.
For the start of our new 5 day Olympic week, we move into WATER events and our first Vent Friday.
Vent Friday’s are where you can write on what you are most passionate or angry about, to swim and dive into your deepest emotional depths.
As it’s a Vent Friday, please share your personal experiences or your thoughts and opinions on the subject of “Injustice and Racism”.
Angee
xoxo
The April Write 
Angela Edgar (AWC Host & Creator)
“CORPORATE BS”
It’s the things they say
When they don’t want you to know…
THE TRUTH
The feebly weak excuses
They think you’ll lap up
Like a cat drinks milk
Like a dog gulps water
The why behind
You
Not getting that job
You
Not getting that promotion
You
Not given that chance to shine
Because you see it in their eyes
When they lie
This is a kind of truth
A truth
They can never physically hide.
“You can’t handle the crazy folk we got.”
“I don’t want to put you in a situation
You’re not equipped to handle –
It just wouldn’t be fair.”
“You’re just not assertive enough for our needs.”
“Oh really… Thanks for being so honest.
(long pause)
But, I’m sorry
There’s no point in giving you the job now
When you’re waiting for a date to have an operation
That might never even happen.”
But what they really mean is:
We don’t think you’re smart enough
We don’t believe you have a brain
For you to just start and be on sick leave so soon
It’s not fair to give your co-workers that strain
Your face doesn’t fit
Nor does the colour of your skin
We don’t like your clothes
We don’t care what’s beneath or within
But we all know the truth
Of this hidden racist and prejudice agenda
The usual Corporate BS spewed from lips
Of a political wannabee who wants their own referenda.
(c)6th April 2012 Angela Edgar
Halim A.Flowers (incarcerated)
HURT people hurt people
People hate because of something within they hate
What race is there but human race
Is it the hue that makes people
Human
Who made us a judge to prejudge
Prejudice is just separation
Ego blinded by the log in the eye pointing out specks in others
HURT people hurt people
And misery finds company because its a hurt unexpressed
A rage burning riotously inside of chests
And when the trees are burned down
The pain is still left
To project
So we become creative in finding ways to protect
The hurt that never lets us rest
Restless
Anger unexplained
Inherited
From a legacy of hurt handed down through institutions
Of bigotry
So bitterly
We see the world through the lenses of hate
And complaints and critique
Critically defaming when there should just be peace
Secured within
Hurt people hurt people
But I don’t hate you
Nor judge or prejudge or blame you
I don’t even acknowledge you
Because I know that its not you
Not really you
Nor hue
That makes you man
Loving people love people
I love YOU
The YOU that you never knew………
(Inspired by the George Zimmermans and black men that have killed black men!)
(c)6th April 2012 Halim A. Flowers
Adam Rowland (fb group member)
Injustice and racism
She wormed her way in.
But he ferreted his way in more effectively.
One of them was the mole.
He had the hump. It was clear.
I kicked up a stink because of a perceived lack of stripes,
Only to find out it was just a horse.
Not overly joyed.
I heard his face described as ‘hang dog’.
An equal measure of bemusement and absinthe.
Whenever I couple wormwood bitterness with confusion, I find my present state alters.
Stoic like an ox.
Bare arsed like a baboon.
An unnatural red permeates.
I am sure that it is as clear to you as it is to me.
(c)6th April 2012 Adam Rowland
Charity Katotobwe (fb group member)
“Racism & Injustice”
Thoughts come to mind about racism
I experience it every day in a spasm
It’s an uncontrolled force that comes to the fore
It is well covered up in a grin and a smile
But inside, the heart it is brewing with spite
Treated differently because of colour is not right
To have the right colour is a prequalification in some cases
It defeats the purpose of equality amongst all races
—————————————————————————
But you know what, it doesn’t bother me
For I know my creator who made me, me
I have no regrets about my colour
I walk with my head high
I move about with a joyful demeanour
Knowing my God lives and he created me whole!
© Charity Katotobwe Day 6 AWC, 2012
Lauren E Delp
Injustice and Racism
The thought crushes
crushes my spirit
the words for it
are stuck in my throat
like a wadded up rag
I try to breathe
try to speak
choking and gagging
on the rage within
Memory comes of
the fight I picked
with two marines
when they called my friend
a name so abhorrent
he tried to pull me away
my rage grew for that
(he wasn’t really my friend
I really didn’t like him
but injustice is injustice
you know?)
raging mother
oh my children
how could you
how can you
how can I make it
better so
you stop hurting your
brothers and sisters
and today I saw 2 men
and thought “they are short”
and heard the thought
and then I knew
why someone says
they are black
or brown
or red
or white – oh yea
and knowing
I walked on in shame
(C)9th April 2012 Lauren E Delp
Lana Joseph
Injustice is sin…
Racism… no after life
pray for the children____
.
Haihu6/30 © 2012 LJ
Katie Rendon
Humble
I will humble myself before anyone
Who proves themselves worthy of such respect
But will kneel before no one
Regardless of status or sect
No degree earned or title held
Holds any soul or mind above my own
No orders made or demands yelled
That could be more powerful than if equality is shown
My voice is as powerful as your own
And only I know the strength of my own heart,
The vastness of my mind, the strength of my bone
Just as I can only view others in part
I will not claim superiority over anyone
And expect that same respect
Judge not by word but by action
Submit not t to that which I did not elect
(c)April 2012 Katie Rendon
Justice Chikandamina (fb group member)
Equality can only exist when we are all looking from the same angle, same platform, same of everything, where no one is better than the other in all respects and aspects…equality does demand that the world be perfect, everything evened out… however as human beings all we have to do is to strive towards equality as a goal…knowing that not all goals are achievable but it gives you focus and direction. Out of Equality we can find our path to Justice !
(C)April 2012 justice Chikandamina
Bayley Marina (fb group member)
Racism and injustice
I believe that all the people I see
Are inherently different from me
And this thought is not only owned by me
It belies the truth of this whole multi- cultural society
And it’s just not the weak and insane that have joined this game
The teachers, police and the everyday man on the street
All play their part, to separate anyone who fails to:
Look like, Act like, Talk like, Dress like, Cook like,
Walk like, Dance like, see what I see
A game of mistrust, confusion and illusion
You may think that this game is unjust,
But that’s a must
But the people who lose are not you or me
Can’t you see it all those that are different from we
Grounded, founded within a nations insecurity
If you are looking for someone to blame
This one has your name
It is them who have caused your pain
It is them who have caused you to go insane
It is them that made you lose your job
It is them that caused you to be robbed
It is them that made your partner leave
And if you please it was them who stole your soul and stopped you from being whole
Should we accept this social norm?
Should we not stand up against the raging storm?
Should we not set all ‘man’ free?
The HueMan in me says that all ‘men’ are born free
Free to roam in homes not called their own
But history has taught us a different reality
Yet I still believe that all the people I see
Are inherently different from me
We were not all meant to be the same you see
There is only one thing that is true both about you and me
The hue of our skin, our heavenly glow does not tell me a thing
About you or what you know.
(c)April 2012 Marina Bayley
Katie Rendon ‘One Drop’
My daughter’s skin is the color of cinnamon.
She’s got Bangkok black hair and a Navajo nose
That compliments her full African American lips.
She is the epitome of beauty.
She is the next generation.
So instead of one drop of this makes you that,
She can say “Oh, I got a drop of this and that
And this and that.
Go ahead, try to put me into a box, label me if you can.
Tell me which side of town I should live on
If my skin isn’t Black or white but tan.
Tell me again, to go back where I come from.
I come from a drop of sweat off my great
Grandfather’s forehead as he picked cotton in Georgia.
I come from a tear drop my Navajo ancestors shed
As they walked the trail of tears.
I come from the drops of blood my Grandmother shed
After traveling from Bangkok to give birth on American soil.
I come from the seeds my Great grandfather carried in burlap
across his shoulder and the Atlantic aboard The Neptune.
“Please God, let the grass be green and the soil rich.
Don’t let my family starve to death like back in Ireland.”
She’ll say, “ I’m a drop of this and a drop of that.
I’m drops of blood, sweat and tears.
I’m drops of hope, courage, promises, dreams and despair.
I am full blooded American. This was Indian land
Built with slave blood and Europeon dreams.”
When she looks around her, she’ll see Bangkok black hair
And Navajo noses, kiss with her full African American lips
Love with her human heart. She’ll see a drop of herself in him,
And her, and him. She won’t see people the way her ancestors did.
She’ll see then as drops of herself. Multiracial goddess with
Skin the color of cinnamon.
(c)April 2012 Katie Rendon