I Am

I am the suffragette who told Black women to march at the back

Even though their cause was mine

I am Hillary Clinton who was Tough on Crime

I spoke with passion to pass a bill that jailed Black men for life

For the crimes of smoking a bowl or carrying a knife.

I am Officer Amber Guyger

I shot Botham Jean dead in his home

I said that I mistook it for my own; he was unarmed.

I am Officer Betty Shelby

I shot Terence Crutcher dead on a roadside stop; he was unarmed

I kept my job.

I am Carolyn Bryant. I said Emmett Till touched me in the grocery store

He was beaten to death, his lovely 14-year-old face bludgeoned into deformity

53 years later I told the world that I had lied.

I am the 53% of white women who voted for Donald Trump.

I am Mrs. Jefferson Davis, first lady of the Confederacy.

I am the Southern women who need “protecting”

By burning Black men and hanging them from trees.

I am Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the great feminist. I worked with Frederick Douglass,

I think Black men are rapists, I call Black men “Sambo.”

I am a Daughter of the Confederacy weeping for men who fought to own Black people.

I am Julie who called the cops on a child selling lemonade.

I am Penny who called the cops on a child whose backpack brushed me at the store.

I am the white mom teaching her children that Black boys mean danger.