None Just One

Aabid Shivji
Aug 26, 2017 · 3 min read

If it was up to me and I really started counting

The list of problems we have would truly be astounding

When we look at the world we live in, amidst all the dismissiveness

Our issues wow us with their expansiveness

The question is why

How come our problems always seem as high

As the sky?

If you really think about it, they’re outside the scope of our eyes

The problem isn’t individual

Could almost describe it as contractual

The space we occupy has formed barriers only describable as structural

And that’s the issue we face

While some of us suffer every day

Fighting battles against causes we can’t even really chase

While our communities decay

But the need to come together and denounce evil must stay

We’re being poisoned on the daily

Forced to walk along a broken railing

While the world around us rides us to the curb despite continued wailing

Amongst all this trauma, we need more Mindy Kalings

More Hasan Minhajs and Priyankas, to counter all the shamings

Our communities have to deal with, external and within

Our people always struggling, with where to position our chins

There’s a level of pride to experience, we’ve sure come a long way

Families made of immigrants, established at least okay

But we still don’t do the right thing, when confronted with the option

We play along while evil sings, careful to exercise caution

Part of this comes from our history, and the way we’ve been taught to occupy

Our struggle is always juxtaposed to the story of others marginalized

Don’t ruffle any feathers with the people in charge

Is what our parents were taught and internalized while they came here on their charge

To find a better future, for themselves and for their families

Minimize the need to suture, avoid making any enemies

This lesson had been around since the time we were first colonized

The British came and went, every rebellious act was at first sized

By the net impact it had on us, we knew what was done was unjust

But tolerate many did to avoid their homes being bust

And that’s something our ancestors are owed

So much weight that they had towed

To keep us safe so we could speak freely and put their stories up for show

But that day has passed now, we know we made it through

Even though we still deal with problems, this experience is new

Now its our responsibility to look around us and view

The plight of others sitting near us who need our attention too

And not contribute

Or rebuke

Shouldn’t be our mission to refute

The narratives of their suffering

From us its like a bludgeoning

That we’re not on their side

Even though we’re more than happy to have them along for the ride

Where are we for our brown and black friends

While it seems their strife never ends

Are we too busy trying to see if this brown blends

Into white

The questions right

We refuse to fight

Out of fright

And instead we use our might

To build curtains to stay out of sight

And in the process block out the light

Allowing others on the margin to be cast into tight

Space

And be erased

While we don’t even show our face

And sit in silence

Through violence

Until somebody kicks us in the knee

Where we still assert our need to be free

Which is a totally justified plea

But we don’t deserve it, if it comes at another’s hurt

We need to make sure each one of us is on higher alert

Come for one of the oppressed come for all should be the message

We should fight for each other like a unified assemblage

Because at the end of the day, the first step to a future where we’ve won

Is to know we’ve got hundreds of problems, and none of them are just one.

)
    Aabid Shivji

    Written by

    Not an expert, but I write sometimes.