Why stop there?

By: Denise Campbell

Date: July 17, 2002

 

Why stop there?

You have already stolen our history

Stole our pride and dignity

And replaced it with confusion and longing

You have stolen our language

Raped our mothers and sisters

And sold our fathers

But that was not enough

Was it?

It wasn’t enough to drag us here in chains and build this country on our backs

It wasn’t enough to take away our right to vote

Our integrity

You leave our men castrated

And our women hating the very things that makes them beautiful

Our brothers lusting after women with a straight nose

Thin lips

Long hair

An a little cream in their blood

And shunning the sisters who wear their crowning glory in naps

 

You have our girls confused

Filled with self hatred and disillusion that our oppressor is better than them

Even our elders

Grown ups

Buying into the conspiracy

Telling a child they are pretty if they “got that good hair”

 

Why stop there?

You already created mass genocide

Robbed our countries of their natural resources and sold us empty promises of things never to come

You’ve already blinded us with greed and set us up to kill each other by selling guns in our communities to our children ensuring they may not live pass their teens

You’ve planted drugs

Put caner in our pockets with cigarettes and second hand smoke on our babies tongue

Before they have stopped suckling

You are a killer

A murderer

A liar

A thief

A back stabber

Why stop there?

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