How long, O God?
How long O’ God, until Black and Brown lives matter to our white peers, politicians, and religious leaders?
How long O’ God, until Black and Brown children can play in the streets without their parents worrying that they will be brutalized, arrested, and murdered by police officers or by so called “vigilantes?”
How long O’ God, will parents need to teach their children to the “right way” to interact with police officers, in the hopes that they will come home alive?
How long, O God, do we need to shout, scream, and burn shit down until we are allowed to live without fear that our names will become the next trending hashtag, while our families stand in front of the cameras begging for justice? We are being murdered in our own homes. We are murdered while playing with toys, while eating skittles, while jogging, for driving a car, while crossing borders, for “fitting the description of a suspect," for simply existing.
How long, O God, will Black and Brown skin be criminalized while white skin is viewed as unsoiled and innocent?
How long, O God, will we be forced to languish in cages for being “illegal,” for protesting government/corporate exploitation of our land, or for simply existing?
How long, O God, will white America value Target, Walmart, Amazon, and other corporations that steal billions of dollars while forcing their workers into poverty, over our lives? How long, O God will white America view the destruction of a Target, a McDonald’s or an Auto Zone as a worse crime than murder?
How long, O God, will the White Christian Church remain silent while our blood fills the streets? They call us their “brothers and sisters in Christ” yet they are quick to run to police for protection and to “thank them” for their service. Why? Because the Christ they serve is not the Christ of the oppressed- their Christ is not the poor, brown-skin marginalized, “criminal” brutalized and killed by the state. They worship a Christ in line with the empire. A Christ who is buddy buddy with state authority. A Christ who would have “stopped resisting” or “done just what he was told.” A Christ who died so that we can enjoy an abstract heaven that has no relevancy to our pain and suffering today.
How long O’ God, until Black and Brown trans people are allowed to be fully themselves? How long until they can express who they are without having to look over their shoulder? How long until Queer Black and Brown people are embraced for who they are: children made in the image of God.
How long O God, until the words of Amos are fulfilled and justice rolls “down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream?”
How long O’ God, must we die?
