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Poem: The Whip, The Noose, The Badge
White Violence Against Black Bodies: 1619–2021
The Whip
Threats of violence against African villages
Black bodies sold to European “explorers”
Lives and livelihood disrupted by their evil racism and greed
Claims of Manifest Destiny
False notions of white superiority
Human trafficking along the Middle Passage
The Triangular Trade becoming a Black hole of death
Slave ships sailing along the ocean blue
Packed with people beaten, raped, degraded, and dehumanized
Humanity swiftly fading
Becoming pieces of property to be sold and traded
To those who stole this land and exploited our labor
The crack of the whip
The shackling of feet
The annihilation of souls
Legally sanctioned, maintained, and perpetuated
By the system that governs this country
While slave patrols enforce these unjust laws
20–30 Africans became almost 4,000,000 enslaved chattel
