Category: Justice & Equity

July 14, 2020January 31, 2021 ddangler

The Black Tax

Justice & Equity

The Black Tax

The Black Tax.  Is what most blacks call it. 

But they don’t just call it that. They live it. 

They live it, day in and day out. Here in America.

And they definitely pay if they’re pulled over in a police stop.

And then every.  Single.  Solitary.  Day.  They pay it.

The Black Tax.  Every day in America. They pay. 

They pay just to walk, and talk and feel safe.

They pay if they stay too long in a coffee shop.

They pay if they look at a white person the wrong way.

They pay it in the day, they pay it in the night, they pay whenever there’s a white person in sight.

They pay in their health.  They pay in their wealth.  They pay in their lives.  They pay in their deaths.

“I’m exhausting from paying this tax” says every black woman and man, in America.

Every.  Single.  Solitary.  Day. 
They pay the Black Tax.  Just for being black in America.

Inspired by Brian Gumbel’s speaking about the Black Tax

June 29, 2020October 20, 2020 ddangler

Crocked Timbers

Justice & Equity

Paradox, just below our surface
Believe strongly of freedom, yet we hold slaves

Contradiction, deep inside our essence
We love one, and long for another

We are light and dark inside, each one of us
We rail against inequity, yet we oppress those we love

The more we dig for understanding and light from our spirit, the more our darkness appears in our souls

These opposites exist everywhere, out in the universe chaos explodes with immeasurable beauty

We’re built on a foundation of imperfection, shored up with firm crocked timbers

Still… we go forward, mere mortals. Hoping our children’s children will free the shackles of slavery from inside their souls that we handed down

Because today, still outstretched hearts and minds towards an ideal, we bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice

June 17, 2020December 8, 2020 ddangler

A White Man in a White Land

Justice & Equity

I’m a man
I’m a white man’s man
I’m a white man’s man, in a white man’s land
And I have a hand, because I’m a white man’s man

I can stand as a man, as a white man’s man
I can stand and no man… can touch my hand
Because I’m a white man’s man in a white man’s land
And the land is my land, just because I’m a white man’s man

I believe I can fly, I believe I can die when I want to die
I can walk, I can talk, I can do what I want when I want to want
Because I can fly and I don’t have to die
Because I’m a white man’s man, in a white man’s land

There’s no worry for me in this land, this white man’s land
Because this land is my land, a white man’s land
I get to drive while I’m white, I get to sleep at night
I get to swing from the tree, that’s been planted by me

Suddenly I see…suddenly I see what has made me, me
I’m white as can be in this land so free
And I paid nothing for freedom that was never free
The black man paid for my freedom, to a deadly degree

So now, take a stand you white man, take a stand in your land
Take a stand for the man whose not safe to take a stand,
For the black man, who can’t talk or walk or sleep or drive
Because he’s not a white man in this white man’s land

I’ll always be a white man in a white man’s land
But I can take a stand for the black man’s hand
I can stand for my brother black man
My fellow brother man, I will take a stand

So you die when you choose to die
And you can fly when you want to fly

June 14, 2020September 28, 2020 ddangler

400 Years

Justice & Equity

400 years, 400 years, 400 goddamn years

And yet, we are still afraid of the black man

400 years of paralyzing terror hidden behind reasoned excuses and argued logic

400 years of putting the black man in his place against the cold, hard red clay

400 years of hiding behind our cowardly white skins only to protect what we never possessed.

400 years of telling the black man and woman they’re not good enough

400 years of stealing their tender souls and squeezing the god ordained life out of them

400 years of letting their strapping, beautiful gleaming, limp bodies dangle from a frayed, wet rope

400 years of tearing their flesh open against a razored slab of concrete, each precious drop of blood filled with the tears of those who cherish them

400 years of rusted chains and shackles, braided whips, splintered boards and sterile, hollow hot barrels dripping with lost lives of hope and potential

400 years of tears, shattered dreams, devastated lives, unbearable suffering and broken hearts.

400 years, 400 years, 400 goddamn years

June 13, 2020July 1, 2020 ddangler

America the Beautiful?

Justice & Equity

America is blind to who we are versus who we think we are.

“With liberty and justice for all”… Unless you’re black.

We hide behind our idealistic belief that we are colored blind. And we prosper because of our denial.

“Land of the free”… Unless you’re black where prison is your freedom.

But we prosper because our knee is on the neck of the black person.

“God shed his grace on thee”… Unless you’re black.

Our white supremacy, hyper white masculinity inner slavery oppresses anything not white or male.

“Someone had to pick the cotton, someone had to plant the corn, someone had to slave and be able to sing, that’s why darkies were born.” (unofficial anthem of the Confederacy)

We still build our wealth on slavery and this still exists at all levels; justice, policing, jobs, healthcare, food, and safe communities for people of color.

“No refuge could save the hireling or the slave, from the terror of the fight or the gloom of the grave.” (Unsung stanza of national anthem)

Medgar, Malcolm, Martin…. We killed you and locked up all of your brothers.

“All men are created equal.” Unless you’re a slave.

We are our history and we whites pretend the world is only white. We’ve become monsters trying to expounge the negro from our souls.

“We are presumed innocent until proven guilty”… Unless you’re a black man.

And the black man suffers mightily at the hand of these injustices.

“We can’t change the world with just ideas in our minds but convictions in our hearts.” Just Mercy

Note: For every 9 people on death row executed, 1 has been proven innocent and most are black. A shocking error rate of injustice.

May 28, 2020July 1, 2020 ddangler

Black

Justice & Equity

Black is our dark side
we hide inside our white skins

We cast our pain on those dark
The slaves we keep locked up inside ourselves

We think if we can erase them from our planet
we don’t have to look at our own evil inside

What are we so afraid of? Their power, their strengths,
the soulful beauty that comes from the riches of this earth

The black man and black woman are our birth mothers and fathers
We cannot cast them aside…love them and caress their vulnerable souls

Overcome your fear of darkness
Show courage and stand in for their pain and hurt

Embrace our black brothers and sisters as if they are a piece of ourselves….because they are.