_ Poetry Challenge Day 66 (Thu Dec 9)_
We have to forgive slavery,
We have to forgive segregation,
We have to forgive Jim Crow laws,
We have to forgive lynchings,
We have to forgive mass incarceration,
We have to forgive voter disenfranchisement,
We have to forgive inadequate representation,
We have to continue to forgive.
Continue to forgive,
Continue to forgive,
Continue to forgive,
today, and every day
to this very day.
We have to forgive, so our white brothers and sisters
can pretend the world is a fairer place than it really is.
This poem was inspired by the words of Roxane Gay. Her premise is that black people have had to continuously forgive the transgressions of whites in order prevent the black plight from becoming worse.
Prior to the Civil Rights era in the 1960’s, there was a lynching ever four days in the South. The victims were often tortured before they were lynched. You could lose your life for something as trivial as a side-long look at the wrong person.