It’s just a word
But what if it’s a word born of hate?
What if it’s a word filled with contempt?
What if it’s a word that denigrates?
What if it’s a slur or crude?
What if it’s an insult?

It’s just a word
So is racist… bigot…. Antisemite
You don’t like being called those do you?
So there are words you find offensive
What if I called you a pedophile?
Isn’t that also ‘just a word” ?

It’s just a word
But it has the power to cut the soul
It can draw tears, it can draw blood
It can enrage, it can discourage
Sure it’s just another word
But words have power

It’s just a word
Do you know its meaning?
Do you know its origins?
The weight of its history?
Words are so much more
Than they seem on the surface

It’s just a word
Like any other we use to communicate
Ahh… but what are we communicating?
Even if you didn’t know its meaning
Once it’s made clear to you
Why do you keep using it?

It’s just a word
No… it’s a concept actually
No… it’s a message
No… it’s an emotion
No… it’s history
No… it’s a word

It’s just a word
Or… it’s a weapon

The post It’s just a word… or is it? | The Soul in the Sun appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

The reason we speak up

It never occurred to you
That sending us to a school
Named after a confederate
Might make us uncomfortable

It never occurred to you
That wearing our skin as make up
To ridicule or mock our identity
Might make us uncomfortable

It never occurred to you
That singing an anthem
Written by a racist
Might be inappropriate

It never occurred to you
That not having representation
In even such things as romance novels
Might make us feel undesirable

Until we pointed it out
You never noticed
That we were missing
In our American culture

Unless we raised the issue
It never occurred to you
That we might feel
Left out

We speak out
We raise our voices
Because you need to see us
You need to include us

For we too are
Americans

The post Why we speak… | The Soul in the Sun appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

No one ever worried
That learning the horrors of our history
Might make us sad and uncomfortable
From the auctions to the lynchings
No one ever cared about that

No one ever worried
As they taught us everyday
That our constitution called us
¾ of a human being and savages too
No one ever cared about that

No one ever worried
About teaching us of the civil war
The deeds of the confederacy
To keep us shacked and enslaved
No one ever cared about that

What they worried about
The things that were hidden from us
We the accomplishments of our people
The inventors and the creators
Those they felt would be too much

We barely started learning
About our heroes and our heroines
People that we could look up too
A history we could be proud of
But that was another short lived dream

Cause now they’re worried
Worried about their children
Learning that Blacks had heroes too
That Blacks had great deeds too
They decided this simply won’t do

They said it makes them uncomfortable
To learn of America’s racists past
That their children might feel guilty
Of the things done by some of their ancestors
Well shouldn’t they?

Doesn’t everyone feel a little shame
Experiences a little guilt
For bad things committed by their own?
Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?
For history not to be repeated?

Aren’t we taught to learn from our mistakes?
Well? Aren’t we?

The post No one cared… | The Soul in the Sun appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

We’ve have watched you
Come after us and our rights
Time and time again
Every single generation
Every time we start to shine
Every single time!
Slavery, Jim Crow, Civil Rights, Selma, Segregation
And so many other instances and places
Where you’ve shed our blood and burnt our houses
Every time “progress” stats to mean results for us
You come out of hiding to slam the lid down on our dreams
And you have the unmitigated gall to stand here today
And say YOU’re being oppressed?
You’re the victim?
Or worse that you’re fighting for me
For my own good!
For my kids future
You have the unmitigated gall to tell me today
That you feel uncomfortable?
That your way of life is being threatened
You have the unmitigated gall to say
The reason for our lack of riches is that we’re lazy?
Even as we work 3 jobs to keep our children fed
You have the unmitigated gall to say
We’re being “anti-white”!
We’re being ungrateful
And though we’d have every reason
To be “anti-white we are NOT

We are anti-white supremacy
We are anti-Racism
We are anti-Sexism
We are anti-greediness
We are anti-Intolerance
We are anti-fascism

We are ANTIFA!

The post Unmitigated gall! | The Soul in the Sun appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.