Russell Wardlow

Money!
That is the barometer of change
Those who have it vs those whom don’t
Those that have it are most capable to effect change
While those who don’t, can only appeal to that dollar
Us broke and broken have cried out to the immortality of the American dollar

Us who have built this country and collectively own only a stark 1.8% of our own land
We have pleaded and died for gains in this country
We have conformed for your love, attention and promise of equality
But still we get nothing
Still we are unseen
Unheard
Unfelt
And barely sympathized
And empathized for
Yet overly rationalized
Objectified
And subjected
To the crass treatment of this country’s elite and preferred class and color

We have been puppeteered
And tap danced
To entertain you
And you have only accepted us as nothing more than that
Entertainment
When we attempt to succeed and speak beyond those boundaries
We are shunned
Stunted
And thwarted
Placed within skinny secluded and limited boundaries and paradigms
Of inclusion
Yet spoken against as if our lack of broad achievement is nothing more than our inability-
Given the equal chance we are offered
While routinely picked over
Supposedly being over or under qualified
And implicit bias being the improvable elephant in the room
The truth is
Our gain, is perceived as a direct threat to white Americans whom desire to protect their positions At the top of the ladder of decision and discernment in this american experience-
With it’s hopes and freedoms
We get decimated and exploited socially
Educationally
Psychologically
Politically
Procedurally
Systemically
Culturally
Geographically
Spiritually
Economically
And legislatively-
All throughout our legal system with the police, prosecutors, prisons and parole system
The problem is that money determines human value
And therefore scales us as necessary liabilities and expenditures
But unnecessary beneficiaries and unworthy proprietor’s
Limiting our potential for capital and stake in this country and in our own future
Money has largely determined our futures for us
People with money whom discern our experience and legitimize our limitations
Quelling our efforts with their resources
Once freed we weren’t given the keys to our own freedom
Only the illusion of
Change is sketched on a cost benefit analysis
Where loss is the metric for true change and gain
Yet loss is overly feared and acted against
Therefore making change rigid
If not improbable at best
With change comes along skin in the game-investment
And given our investment in this country we have the worst ROI in the history of mankind
We’ve always been on the wrong side of modern history with promises and gains
While people complain about money lost
We have been taking financial, bodily and providential hits for over 4 centuries
So we don’t wanna hear about money loss
We wanna see the money spent
Since we can’t fairly get a seat at the table and create our own wealth with equal opportunity
Because we have created more than enough equity and paid astronomically more than our Weight in gold to this country’s building and upkeep as leaders of the free world
We created the power and braggadocio able to be lived
Our sweat, blood and lives made way for the idea privilege and global hierarchy us Americans enjoy

Put up or shut up
Just like in business,
If you really want the real estate then money talks
You say we matter well show us
Because if the colors on this end of the spectrum were in contrast, uproar and a flood of money Would be thrown at the problem
If not all out societal bedlam given the entitled attitude of most white Americans
And the pocket checks is what tilts the checks and balances of this country
The lack of resources is the primary reason for crime rising in impoverished communities
So don’t look at our communities and scathe us with your uninformed judgement
Poverty creates crime
Disproportionate resources make that happening a more static reality because the cut off of Those resources needed is what keeps the status quo safe
It’s what keeps the suburbs looking down and at a distance from true iniquities and inequalities!
So in case you didn’t know where I was going with this
There’s a reason why the money is funneled up
And the pain and its oppressive instigators reign down and rain on the bottom of the ladder
Flooding the lowest of us
And no one seems to care until their ankles get wet
While we’re drowning in this country’s consistent wrongs to us
One of two of its biggest debtors that has yet to collect on what’s owed
It almost feels like this country is the crook looking down on the helplessness and gullibility of it’s victims
While we ask
Why are you doing this
And all you do is offer pennies to the dollar of what’s been stripped from us inside and out
And we can’t even sue for pain and suffering
Because you created the kangaroo court that will proceed in favor of your ill-gotten gains
Citing survival of the fittest, natural selection and irreconcilable differences saying it’s our fault
We shouldn’t have been suckers and allowed ourselves to fall prey to your carnivorous hunger and insatiable thirst
Smugly saying spoils of war, sore loser
You’ve kept us broke
You prefer us broken and at times succeeded
But you still can’t eliminate us
Because still we rise
And we are here and will remind you everyday that we will not remain forgotten
That we will not remain victims
And this country will know and acknowledge the pain we feel because we are done going away silently in the night
Being lost to political rhetoric and the convenience of another headline
We will be that inconvenient disruption to the everyday programmed schedules of your privilege and ignorance
The revolution will not only be televised and internalized
It’s inherited
So it will be expressed and externalized with gusto, with ferocious spirit and personal pride
Because bottom line
We’re more than a bottom line
But for change, we have to affect your bottom lines
Money…

Stop saying you don’t see my color

You are NOT colorblind

Nobody is

Why would I want you to be

I want you to see me

I’m looked passed, through, and assumed too often

My protests go largely unheard

I’m acknowledged most when I fit a stereotype

When you hear of crime, you see me

Even if just a mental picture

When you hear me get excited, you see me

But not as a normal person

Rather a rambunctious untamed animal

When I’m angry, you see uncivilized aggression

You don’t see a person allotted emotions

You see validated yet quieted implicit biases-

Plausible deniability-

So my cries of fouk are shunned

You see a prison as answer for me

Frankly, I can’t be a regular human being in your eyes

My sobering human moments

You see less a person and more a ‘thing’

A beast with too much terrain to roam-

Needing to be reeled in and controlled

You tell me to calm down

Chill

Don’t be so loud

You talk to me like child therapists

With a “1 2 3 breath intonation”

As if training a wild animal

With your superior logic and reserve

Believing I’m genetically incapable

You’re even more outraged at my wrongs than that of others

When I do wrong, it makes sense to you

You aren’t colorblind

My color makes you blind