America, Loving You Is Complicated
By: Jerry L. Burrell
Tags: White Privilege, Patriotism, White Supremacy, BlackLivesMatter, African American

Photo by Delaney Turner on Unsplash

The idea of your founding is what really has my heart

On paper at least, it was a revolutionary start

but while you were claiming all men are born equal

that part of the story got cut till the sequel

You see, I’m a black man who loves the idea of my country

But you enslaved and made people forget they were once free

You shackled their bodies and spirits and minds

you raw raped their freedom, you can still see the signs

You forced their submission and claimed you were supreme

killing off those who threatened your lies with their dreams

To veil your vile ways you believed your own lies, see

so your greats and your grands and your parents despise me

It baffles my mind to behold all the hatred

that warps and that twists and says white lives are sacred

Where does hate go after burning so hot

after lying and raping and killing, it’s not

the kind of thing you can squash overnight

generations it takes for hate to see the light

so maybe you still hate and don’t even know it

you say, “I don’t see color” but your actions don’t show it

Maybe it’s baked into your DNA

laying low until needed to help you get your way

Maybe I’m making it a bigger deal than I should

and your hate should be viewed as something that’s good

It leads to reductions in crime by jailing blacks cause of crack

and gives billions in treatment for whites’ opioids & smack

If that’s not hate in disguise then what might it be

Your alternative facts, they’re hate too, don’t you see.

If any other country did this, I would hate it

and yet I still love your promise. I know — complicated

Photo by Kristen Sturdivant on Unsplash

I am encouraged by fighters that fought before me

Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass and Muhammad Ali

They faced opponents much more brutal than mine

yet, the fight remains bitter after all of this time

There are some of you that have broken the cycle

but when constantly told you are better then why go

out of your way to fix wrong and make right

when the privilege you hold is hiding in plain sight

Why give up your advantage when it’s proof you have heart

you claim you worked harder but you don’t count your head-start

You benefit in ways you don’t realize

reap rewards and refuse to at least recognize

that often, though smart, creative and bold,

it’s your whiteness that takes you from “for sale” to “sold”

Photo by Juan Encalada on Unsplash

Staying focused while over my shoulder I look

is like driving a car while reading a book

Think how much faster and farther I’d go

if not for your stop & frisk mind games that slow

my progress and train me to always be on guard

subliminally programming me that I’m less and life’s hard

that you’re more and life’s cards are always in your hand

and you deal me in only when I take a stand

You want nothing more than for me to be gone

but my blood built this house and the land it sits on

You should wake everyday thanking me and my kin

without us you’d be outside the world looking in

Photo by Cooper Baumgartner on Unsplash

I’ve battled your limits and pursued my dreams

Been connected to 3 World Championship teams

I am bold, I take risks, I am mad innovative

those things you reward so here’s where my fate lives

I don’t speak swahili or french or chinese

I was born here and belong here so won’t you just please

stop telling me to go back if I don’t like it here

I inherited America’s promise and just to be clear

if you cared about this country this is what you should do

help make it better for all not just “great again” for you

Originally published at JerryLBurrell.com

*Update includes the first four lines and various other rearrangements of text