Black men being shot
Black women kidnapped
Black children being murdered
We strive to survive, but really what
hope is there for us?
• • •
Nobody cares about us dying
Nobody cares about us crying
Nobody cares about when we are
forced to say goodbye to our babies
Nobody hears our everlasting
frustration in our tears as they fall
to the ground with an echoing sound
of deep-rooted sadness and
devastation.
• • •
Now there is this deep manifestation
of being afraid to learn, afraid to
speak
Because at least if you don’t speak
your life is yours to keep.
At least for one day you won’t be
stomped under the white policeman’s
feet.
But little do you know every time I
walk onto the streets I still hear them.
• • •
Still hear the black voices crying out
in anguish
Still feel their blood seeping into
my skin
Still breathe and taste their misery
and misfortune in the air, choking me
Suffocating me.
• • •
Black men being shot
Black women kidnapped
Black children being murdered.
Nobody cares about when we are
forced to say goodbye to our babies
Nobody hears our everlasting
frustration in our tears as they fall
to the ground with an echoing sound
of deep-rooted sadness and
devastation.
Ashanti Cole-Stallworth is serving as a summer intern at the Evanston RoundTable through the Forrest E. Powell’s WE Program. She is a rising senior at Evanston Township High School.