Transcribed from recording of performance at X Lounge.
We are at war. When our brothers, our dear, dear brothers, are in north Omaha dying because they have been socialized to believe in the media’s definition of what it means to be a man, we are at war.
And our sisters, our dear, dear and beautiful, phenomenal sisters, chasing stunning dreams of grandeur while clearly having forgotten their natural beauty, always trying to chase after something that they are not while the rest of the world is dying and praying to have what they got, we are at war.
When the television becomes a long term baby sitter and social media like face book becomes a way we interact with one another because we are afraid to go face to face with one another and have a conversation and video games replace exercise, we are at war.
And when teachers who are placed in urban areas are culturally insensitive and have no concept to color-filled neighborhoods that they teach in but are paid extra wages and given additional incentives to promote ignorance while pushing standardized tests and assessments that purposely leave our children behind, we are at war.
And so my dear, dear brothers and sisters, I invite you to participate in creating ways that we can stop this war, ‘cause we will continue to have war as long as we ignore.
Poem copyright Felicia Webster, used here with permission.