A CONFUSED AMERICAN: JEROME TEELUCKSINGH, Ph.D.

             

(Photograph Courtesy of Getty Images)

See us on the streets walking with heat,

we want to walk away from racism, but you keep pulling us back.

We loot to feed the starving and greedy, and know you will still shoot.

I regret staying quiet when they spat on souls of Italian descent.



We are not protesting the police brutality,

we march against the past and continued injustices.

We shout for the deaf authorities to remember who got the power.

I regret staying quiet when the First Nations had their lands stolen.



We chant fancy slogans for deaf politics and to educate the privileged elite;

don’t be afraid…these threats are like ashes that will harm nobody.

You raped and lynched our ancestors…now you are afraid of us?

We cannot wait longer, we cannot stay quiet.

I regret minding my own business when the Japanese, Vietnamese and other souls were targeted after the Harbor was bombed and Vietnam.



Angry marchers got solutions and if you push us

then our resolve will be unstoppable.

You call us arsonists but you burnt the bridges of peace;

you call us rioters but we learnt it from you in 1776.

I regret staying quiet when my Arab and Sikh friends were mocked.



Where is the peace and love your hippie generation preached?

You quote laws and amendments but ignore the Emancipation Proclamation.

You call us domestic terrorists but stay dumb after school shootings.

I regret staying quiet when they came for the Communists



Our ancestors built this land, now we run the liquor stores and casinos.

The ghosts of the brave are with us…who is on your side?

I’m safer chained on plantations and beaten in prisons.

I regret laughing at the Hispanics

I’ve been abused and seen power misused…I cannot call America

my home.