Their tongues are twisted from spouting lies.
And their hollowed-out sockets contain no eyes.
The stench of their corruption is everywhere,
bringing dark-skinned people such despair.
Inside a prison and locked in a cage
are all my brothers filled with rage.
My sisters are murdered every day.
Is this any way to live? Hell no! No way!
The fork-tongued devils are on our ass.
Their see-through skin gives them a pass.
With fetid breath and acid for blood,
they seek to destroy the Negro bud.
By drenching our streets with crack cocaine.
And by dumbing us down so that we don’t use our brain.
We don’t fight back, we just raise our hands.
And supplicate ourselves; obeying their commands.
All throughout history, tell me what has changed?
We live underneath the boot of the psychotic and deranged.
They say they earned their wealth by the sweat of their brow.
We know the truth, the slaves sweated and how.
Our people built this shithole and were raped and lashed.
And to this very day, Black heads are bashed.
What other group of people would take this shit?
Who else would bow their head and take another hit?
We go down this same road, year after year,
screaming “No justice, no peace” in another deaf ear.
The soles of our shoes are worn so thin.
We so are hated for our beautiful Black skin!
Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2015 Shelby I. Courtland
This poem was born thanks to The Militant Negro™. One of his most recent posts really caught at my heart because what keeps happening to the Negro in Amerikkka is just SO goddamn wrong. Yet another Black man that was wrongfully convicted of a crime, spent 27 years in prison. This man was innocent and the white criminal injustice system, because this man was not white, incarcerated him on bogus ass charges and knew it. And yet, even after having spent 27 years in prison and most likely experienced untold brutalities and had atrocities committed against his person, this man actually forgave the shits that got him erroneously convicted. This man could have been sent to death row and put to death and he was innocent. Mr. Donald Eugene Gates is a more forgiving person than I could ever be. You see, when I hear or see stories such as this one, it does not fill my heart with a warm glow. It does not make me want to go to church and thank a non-existent ‘god’ for ‘keeping my spirits up’ because I don’t believe in some ‘god’ that would allow an innocent man to rot in prison for 27 years thanks to pure fucking racism, prejudice, white privilege and slavery. Yes, slavery! Because prison is just the new form of slavery. The slave patrols are out hassling Black people on a daily basis. The Klan dressed in blue or brown take off their white sheets, don those blue or brown uniforms and commence to busting caps in Black asses. And when they’re not doing that, they are imprisoning Black men, women and children on bullshit charges. They are killing them inside jail and prison walls and blaming it on their mental status. “They committed suicide.” Well there has been a goddamn rash of suicides. And some have even been handcuffed, sitting in the back of a police cruiser and somehow managed to shoot themselves in the head. Then there are the ones that conveniently find trash bags and snuff their lives out. Bullshit!
One thing about me, I am not forgiving and I don’t forget and I sure as hell don’t pretty shit up, tie a nice little bow on it and present it to my readers. Oh no! That is not my way. That is not how I roll. The shit that goes down is filthy. It is vile. It is barbaric and it is happening to people who look like me and the time to be all nice when talking about this has passed. A part of my soul that writes poetry is dead. It died from sheer misery. It died from reading about the atrocities that are committed daily against people that had the nerve to be born with a lot of melanin in their skin. That is a crime? That is punishable by death? Once again, for the motherfuckers that are slow or otherwise dumb as shit, my Black ass and every other Black person that is a descendant of African slaves did not get into a goddamn boat and row the fuck over to this shithole. Don’t think for one goddamn second that I am going to worry about hurting some motherfucker’s feelings when white asses don’t give a fuck for what goes down against Black people in this shithole every single goddamn day. And don’t even act like you don’t notice it.
No indeed, I am NOT Mr. Gates, the forgiving’ for what was done to him. AGAIN, that is not me. And the problem is that we have too many Black people who are just like Mr. Gates; worshipping some white man’s ‘god’ and being all forgiving. What has being forgiving got Black people in this shithole? In the morgue, piled sky high, that’s what it’s gotten them. It has gotten them wall-to-wall inside prison walls enriching corporate assholes; making money for the white man, same as in those good ole days of slavery that never went anywhere. And they are not going anywhere as long as Black people continue to march down the goddamn street with cap in hand to the filthy ass whites, expecting some damn justice. This is going to continue as long as we continue to just print protest sign after protest sign and beg for justice and peace. It is really working out for us, isn’t it?
Mr. Gates is in ill health. Go figure! And what he received in compensation for what he went through was an insult but the really sad part is that even though his life was deemed worthless, Mr. Gates more than likely will never get to ‘enjoy’ the millions he received for being wrongfully imprisoned for 27 years and yet, he forgave those that fabricated evidence that got him wrongfully convicted. And for that, I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry!
shelbycourtland 
Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
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I want to thank you for putting the fire back into my soul with that post of yours! If not for you, I would have seriously thought that I could not put two words together that made sense, I am that enraged. But now, I understand that when I get enraged, I should try and make it count for something. For that, again, I thank you!
And thank you, as always, for the reblog. I sincerely appreciate it!
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Some of us react to anger, disgust, emotional stress by striking out in real life. Some of us just get depressed. Some of us do what we do best, take positive action. Your post Our Beautiful Black Skin demonstrates your talent. I wish I had talent for something but all I have is anger, raw emotional hatred and a blog I can use to keep from going into the street and doing the wrong thing.
Instead of depression and despair, use your talents Shelby. You are blessed. Thank you for those kind words. Namaste & Umoja.
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I know only too well about the ‘anger and raw emotional hatred’ because I am consumed by it. That is why my poetic pen is dry because all I see is red. I am like a goddamn bull that is being goaded by the matador.
Someone, a few weeks ago, wrote that Black people are being poked and prodded and fucked with and that eventually, there is going to be a serious backlash from people that have been abused, and that is the understatement of the year, and the shit is really going to hit the fan. Would that I live to see it if it does indeed, come to pass.
Thank you Mr. Militant Negro and again, I’ll state, why I have not burst into flames from the rage that is building up inside me, I don’t know.
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Amerika, land of the free and home of so many graves.
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Skulz, that is SO true, it ain’t even funny. And so on point. And the gravedigger never has to worry about losing his job. Another job that’s never going away is that of Funeral Director. They do a booming business because the assembly line never stops moving bodies from the streets and jails and prisons to the morgue to the funeral home. For the love of ……!
I thank you for your comment! Spot on, it is!
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Beautiful poem Shelby. Our prisons our full of innocents. Remember the pen is mightier than the sword and your sword is especially sharp! keep writing.
Leslie
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Well, Leslie, I wish that with my pen, I could strike the doors open to every goddamn prison on this planet and free the innocent. And I know that there are millions of them. No one has to tell me that. And my anger and rage knows no bounds for the innocent that have been put to death thanks to racism that will never go away. It will NOT in MY lifetime and that is a fact. Would that it were not so.
Hate breeds hate. I am finding that out because love is certainly fleeing my heart. Hence, the rawness of the bit of poetry that I can still dig from somewhere.
I thank you for your comment but pretty soon, my writing is going to get too hot to handle!
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You do what you have to do Shelby. You have good reason.
Leslie
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Just postulating here, Shelby.
Genetically speaking, all men are defective, more so than women. Now I’ve told you before, and I only repeat it here for any other reader, that human life as we know it began in southern Africa some hundred thousand years ago. This is now an established scientifically known fact. And these first humans were black. So then, where did the other races originate? Long story short. Although there isn’t conclusive evidence there is amble proof to support that human life originated by DNA tampering between H. erectus and Anunnaki DNA (and long before that too). And that life took the form of black. I know that sounds incredible, but it sure beats the Bible version of creation. And evolution in my estimation would have created us perfect as it has everything else; so why stop at us. Anyway, let’s assume that’s how we came about, for the sake of argument. You may have heard the term ‘Black is Beautiful’; and so thought the Anunnaki. “And they (the gods) saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and took them for their own bed.” Or something to that effect, is recorded both in the bible and in the ancient Sumerian tablets. Which BTW predated the bible by several thousands of years. And so, became a lighter skinned race. The Anunnaki are purported as being white, like paper I believe. But, here’s how I see it. To begin with, our DNA was terribly defective, being cross contaminated, and then to further compound the matter, that same DNA was further contaminated when the daughters of men had their Anunnaki sired babies. And the one thing that we white people inherited in all that . . . well I think you know well what we inherited, particularly white men. We’re a goddamn brutal fucking race and gender, Shelby. As are the Anunnaki known to be. But we don’t have to be. I’m not. We can, I believe, evolve our DNA to kinder and gentler. Hence my fight for animal rights. Which I believe our treatment of the most vulnerable and innocent of species is rooted in the manner in which we treat all beings. Give the animals their right to life on their own terms, stop eating, enslaving, and tormenting them, how can it not follow then that all species will enjoy the same?
I apologize for the hastily wrote comment, siting no references, but time is short.
Take my hypothesis for what it’s worth.
BTW, I’ve a post scheduled for tomorrow morning in honor of our illustrious Thanksgiving holiday, you might enjoy.
Sorry for rambling, Shelby. Peace to you and yours. And keep the rage flowing.
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Peter postulate away! And never be sorry for as you put it, rambling,’ because I love to read anything from you and as long as my readers agree with me, they can post a book of a comment. <–Hopefully, I'm NOT that bad.
I've been attempting to hypothesize about what makes 'white' males so goddamn vile, barbaric, brutal, greedy, arrogant and corrupt and I could continue but you get my drift, I'm sure. I was leaning towards some sort of 'alien' shit. Because when I see all the atrocities that have been committed; 2 nuclear bombs dropped on innocent people, horrific experimentation done on human beings, continuous wars; even so-called 'religious' wars, genocide, theft of peoples and land, lynching; these have all been perpetrated by 'white males'. No other group of people on this planet has caused as much destruction, terror and chaos as 'white males' have. They are like rabid beasts that are uncontrollable with their greed and lust and hatred and barbarity. They are the ones that must hunt for the fun of it; for the thrill of it. That is sick and depraved and that shit is in power and the rest of the world's people are at the mercy of the merciless. Even the people that have been brutalized and fucked up horribly by these 'white devils' are not as vile as they are. These 'white' devils for want of a better word, need to be wiped out because many are not like you and that is a fact. Those that are in control of this planet; those who have the power to torment and torture the world's people are not human. And that is why I supposed them to be of 'aliens' because I can think of no other explanation for their existence. I just cannot.
And yes, what we do to the animals does not bode well for the so-called 'human race' if we want to scream to all and sundry about how 'humanitarian' we are and then turn around and pen animals in filth, let them stand where they shit and then we eat them. They're packaged so nicely in the supermarket. The butcher will come out with his bloodied apron on and think nothing of it. But if it were his child's blood that stained his apron, he'd be inconsolable. And so I anxiously await your post tomorrow. Hit us with a big ass sledge hammer, willya?
Thank you Peter!
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Maori TV re-played a great Swedish documentary last night on the US black power movement. The speeches by Stokely Carmichael and Angela Davis ridiculing white leaders on their attitude towards black people defending themselves against white violence are extremely powerful – and clearly demonstrate their preeminence as leading American intellectuals of the 50s and 60s.
It can be seen at the Maori TV website (for the next few weeks): http://www.maoritelevision.com/tv/shows/tuesday-festival-documentaries/S01E001/black-power-mixtape-1967-1975
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Thank you for your spot on comment Dr. Bramhall. The #BLACKLIVESMATTER group should be watching that because it is quite obvious that they could take a page out of the speech book of Stokely Carmichael and Angela Davis because BLACKLIVESMATTER has no idea what to say to the politicians or anyone else for that matter when it comes to what changes they want to see. In my opinion, the Black Power Movement is dead. It is just as dead as the Civil Rights Movement. We’ve got sell-outs and coonheads nowadays bowing and scraping to Massa with hat in hand begging for some table scraps. We’ve got Black men in Hollywood wearing dresses and makeup because that’s all the rage; degrading Black men. We’ve got Black women in Hollywood still serving breakfast trays, sweeping up after the ‘whites’ and telling little ‘white’ kids that “You Is Smart, You Is Kind, You Is Important” as she played in “The Help.” Yeah! That was a good one Viola Davis. Davis and Forrest Whitaker need to collaborate and do a remake of “Gone With The Wind.” They can call it “Bring The Wind Back!” Yeah! I can’t wait to see that. I’d be the first in line.
And yes, I will be checking out the link. I’m looking forward to it. I want to know what real Black Power was and it sure as hell ain’t around now!
Thank you Dr. Bramhall!
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Sorry I meant to say of the 60s and 70s – I mistyped.
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good heavens, felt that right to the bone
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I do sincerely thank you for that wonderful comment! I needed that! It’s been a helluva day!
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tell me about it
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Oh bless your sweet heart, my dear friend!
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