THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE

We brought them here in chains against their will.
Raped their women and beat the hell out of them.
Worked them to death without compensation.
Sold and resold men, women, and children like cotton.
Made them three fifths of a human being,
Without giving them three fifths of human dignity.
Denied them the vote, jobs, education, health care, housing, and employment.

Freed them after a nasty bloody fight.
Promised them a mule and 40 acres,
Instead, packed them in ghettos roped by red lines.
Continue to deny them jobs, education, health care, housing, and employment.
Always finding ways to make voting difficult for them.
Left the drug trade wide open for them.
Punished them more harshly for using or selling drugs.

We bring in the drugs and they sell them.
No qualifications needed to push drugs.
Drug trade is an equal opportunity employer.
Phony drug war enriches us and imprisons them.
Drug violence, mostly black on black crime.
Because we live outside the red lines.
But lines do get crossed by the incarcerated.

Fraction of money spent in creating an unjust and unequal society,
Enough to create, a violence-free and egalitarian society.
We will take our chances and continue with business as usual.
Statistics is always one hundred percent for crime victims.
Sooner than later, the violence may affect you,
As a loved one is viciously slaughtered by a victim,
Of your inhuman policies backed by law enforcement.

Laws made by the haves to keep the have nots,
In a state of perpetual penury and abject neglect.
Just remember that violence can be cyclical.
The cycle of violence means that violence,
Will eventually affect the creator of violence.
As the chicken will eventually come home to roost.
You reap what you have sown.

Law enforcement supervised by a fully sighted Lady Justice,
Who dispenses justice based on color.
Harsh long sentences for Blacks, slap on the wrist for others.
Death sentences based on race and color of victim.
Extrajudicial murders by Police Officers,
Justified by “fear for my life,” life of police officer,
Because Black lives do not matter.

When the incarcerated sights his jailer,
The interaction may be violent and deadly,
Because of pent up anger and resentment,
Built over centuries of maltreatment and marginalization.
Now it is the jailer’s turn to complain vehemently.
Quit complaining, you created the violence,
By slavery, segregation, discrimination, exclusion, racism, and hatism.

European maltreatment of migrants from Africa,
Similar to treatment of Blacks in America.
Europeans reaping radical Islamic terrorism,
As a reward for maltreatment of migrants.
Will humans ever learn from history?
Never, as material greed beclouds human decency,
And profiteering overrides sense of justice and fairness.

Welcome to the cycle of violence.