An outward manifestation of white supremacy is often pretty easy to spot: discriminatory policing, the lack of representation of darker-skinned people in mainstream media and higher rates of poverty among people of color. However, these blatantly racist circumstances are often the culmination of smaller microaggressions. For example, lower high school graduation rates at predominantly black high schools are due to a lack of resources like college preparation, vocational training and certified experienced teachers. This is caused by meager funding, which is the result of schools using property taxes as the main source of funding (the U.S. government does not give a lot of money to schools in low-income areas).
Using property taxes is a problem because houses in black neighborhoods are typically valued less than those in white neighborhoods. This can be traced back to when the National Housing Act of 1934 was passed and maps indicated that people from certain (black) neighborhoods should be denied housing and business loans because they were considered a risky investment. Because black people were virtually unable to vote at this time, there was nothing they could do to prevent this discriminatory legislation.
In short, racism is complicated. This poem is dedicated to those convoluted, often invisible social constructs that hinder black liberation.
Kill Your Colonist
By Alimah Dawkins
Kill Your Colonist
And call into question everything that came from him
Watch Your Own
Very visceral reflexes become foreign
Sever entire pieces from your psyche
And feel yourself become whole
Kill Your Colonist
Research the Hijra and Two Spirit
And wonder why you must color-code your children,
Black-balling anyone who does not prescribe to pink or blue
And is therefore useless in a society where pale azure is almighty (take your rainbows elsewhere)
Kill Your Colonist
Black Brutes assume child-like innocuity when compared to Calhoun and Columbus
Hysterical women turn sound once you consider the single, double, triple-edged sword
Re-imagine Your Saviors
With skin like brass and hair like wool
Hold a mirror to your face
And see the Most High stare back
Kill Your Colonist
Ephesians kept your ancestors in their chains
Don’t let “turn the other cheek” keep you in yours
Every lesson is not yours to heed
Kill Your Colonist
But not your Cousins
Reclaiming that which they lost in the fire
Does not signify a longing to be burned
Kill Your Colonist
Or let him kill himself
Inequality is inherently inefficient
And his plantations
Leave the very ground he stands on
Barren.
Empty.
Dead.
Alimah Dawkins is a recent graduate of South Atlanta High School who cannot wait to see the Black Panther movie. Art by Jahleelah Rasheed.
