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No Accident
The Miseducation of America
It’s no accident, that
You learned about Helen Keller
instead of W.E.B. DuBois, and the Watts and
L.A. Riots, but not those in Tulsa or
Wilmington; or, that
You learned that George Washington’s
dentures were made from wood, rather than
the teeth of slaves; or, that
You learned about the New Deal and black
ghettos, but never about redlining and Black
Wall Street.
It’s no accident, that
You heard and learned about “black on black
crime,” but white criminals have never been
lumped together and discussed in such terms
as their race, creed, color, or gender identity; or, that
You learned about “states rights” as the cause
of the Civil War, fought to preserve the Union,
but not that slavery was mentioned 80 times
in the articles of secession.
It’s no accident, that
Privilege is having history rewritten
so that you don’t have to acknowledge
uncomfortable facts. Racism is perpetuated by
people who refuse to learn or acknowledge all
of these truths and realities. But, there is
nothing great about hate. On rare occasions,
poetic justice is just the karma due to
soul-writers and truthsayers who carry their
truth in their heart, wielding words as their only
weapons and calling it art; though, it’s a hard
road to follow.
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2021 MDSHall is a poet living in Illinois, writing in association with the Writes of Passage, “forged on the wordwrights’ anvil,” and the Muse Echo Collective, Purveyors of the Poet Tree of Discoursing Drums beating by any dreams necessary.
