To Those That Say All Lives Matter When We Say Black Lives Matter

You say all lives matter Bringing up all these colors Like red, white, orange, and blue But when a black life is taken, where on Earth are you? Where's your sympathy and support when the takers of our lives get off Scott-free in court? Why weren't you at the rally? Why weren't you at the protest? You say all lives matter then reveal yourself to be a hypocritical mess. Why are you more upset at the march of an activist feet And the words that were in his speech Than you are at the fact that another black body lies bleeding in the street? Why don't you demand justice when it's our lives they are taking? Why don't you demand truth as the media is muckraking? Dessiminating misinformation, and sometimes straight up lies, while ensuring we become nothing but criminals in your eyes? Not husbands, sons, daughters, loved ones, or wives None of that is left after we've been demonized, had our humanity stripped and been reduced to part crimes. Oh but they'll tell the story of the killer, saying he's gentle and wouldn't hurt a fly When he just might shoot the wings off the black angel if he saw it in the sky? Why??? To put it simply, he's racist And that could just be implicit bias Not always blatant hatred Either way when he sees the color of my skin my life is no longer as sacred As a matter of fact the color of it means I'm a threat And in that moment all training and restraint he forgets He overreacts Our of his own cowardice and fear Pulls the trigger back and BANG Another one of us is no longer here... An instance of disregard and violence Repeated so much throughout this nation's history But we won't live in silence in the face of this danger and misery We've dealt with it since slavery when they put us on the boat To two years ago When Eric Garner was choked You don't care about The damage, pain, anguish, and tears Dealt by the oppression and violence we've suffered all these yearsIn fact All Lives matter You're complicit in these things You'd say it wasn't true But when a black life is taken where on Earth are you? Our here characterizing the entire movement By the actions of the outside few Calling us dangerous, cop killers When that's not even what we do We want to be able to exercise our rights freely We want changes in policy As well as accountability Consequences for those who inflict this brutality But as we do our work to change the system from the outside and within You act as if we've committed some sort of sin Saying we don't care about others And it's not about race Never mind the fact that we are killed at a much higher rate Sharing stories of white people who are brutalized and ask for our repentance Purposefully leave out the fact that THAT officer got a sentence Saying "You ignore the taking of others lives. That ain't right" Rhetorical question If a white person is brutalized Is it ever BECAUSE they're white??? See we go through these things because we are black And its an understanding or concern about this, that you seem to lack. Saying all lives matter To silence our voices on something that matters to US And through erasure send us to the back of the social justice bus So I could ask again why When one of our lives are taken From you there's no anger, outrage, our outcry I won't, I already know It's because from the start All Lives matter Wasn't anything but a lie