The Difference
history is not always on your side
there are tools today not available
some long ago
the rules are no longer
the rules
back then
the peaceful opened arms wide
believing no harm would come
because they meant no harm
over and over again
at some point the peaceful
adapted their thinking
protection their mode of communication
modern day colonizers forget
the memories present in the colonized
because they have no recollection
they couldn’t
they have never been
on the receiving end
of loss of home
by force
being demonized for existing
in their own environments
so moving forward
the mentality of
things will be what I want them to be
is not based in real time thinking
these days the people
know they are being displaced
never trusted your tongue
or
presence in neighborhoods
they’ve inhabited
for decades
and you don’t understand
that you moved into their hoods
you want to claim neighbor
when you do not know them
or care
to
they who are reduced the to thug
because you never read hood life 101
left a laundry list of opportunities to take
the way you took from them
and this is not to condone
but explain
things don’t change because
you showed up
I know your privilege didn’t tell you this part
that yes the native folk will videotape
the crimes against you
the way the cops tape crimes
perpetrated on them
and nothing happens
and nothing will happen
as long as you believe yourself
to be above them
you continue to call them thugs
call the police when you
don’t like the loudness of their music
because it doesn’t have the same
rhythms of your leaf blower
if you want to live in the hood,
you better learn the language
understand that Leroy
been living on that corner
for a decade
and Miss Lillian knows everything
all the time
your presence
doesn’t change
their reality
it changes yours
and you better learn how to adapt
or just like you saw your opportunity and acted on it,
they will do the same
there are all kinds of takers
you no longer hold
the monopoly on that
and that is the difference
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