We Never Get To Rest by Jada Young https://padlet.com/jadadorothy/zbz0w1k4ttozxfoa A series of poems in response to Black literature en-us 2021-12-10 04:44:08 UTC 2026-02-11 02:39:04 UTC hello@padlet.com Tamika Mallory (January 21st 2017), quoted in "Misrepresented People: Poetic Responses to Trump’s America" jadadorothy https://padlet.com/jadadorothy/zbz0w1k4ttozxfoa/wish/1939711186 “This country has been so hostile to its people for a long time. For some of you it’s new. For some of you it is not so new.”
...
Red, White, and Blue by Jada Young

Amerikkka
home of the free and brave
where Black people are killed
in the comforts of their beds
fast asleep
while white men get to roam the streets
killing whoever they please-
-he begs, the black man on his stomach
with a knee to his neck
like a hungry alligator
preying on it's next picaninny
the minstrel show continues on
except it's not the 1930s
but the 21st century
where traumatic Black deaths
are plastered on our TV screens
and white people are discovering
~racism~
for the first time
the same way they
discovered Africa
and stole us from our home countries
only to torture and kill us
then never set us free
(but did I forget to mention that white people are still discovering racism for the first time?)
you see,
it's crazy because
400 years later
and my people are still suffering
with shackles on their legs
there's nothing we can do
or change
since the system isn't broken
but working the way it's supposed to
so no
I'm not shocked
Amerikkka
elected a president
who has committed 
impeachable crimes
because none of that mattered 
in this country
until white people had attacks 
on their rights



]]> 2021-12-10 04:48:08 UTC https://padlet.com/jadadorothy/zbz0w1k4ttozxfoa/wish/1939711186 Hanif Abdurraqib, "It’s Just That I’m Not Really Into Politics" jadadorothy https://padlet.com/jadadorothy/zbz0w1k4ttozxfoa/wish/1939711970 “violence begets more / violence / or so I’ve been told / but all of this country’s skyscrapers / are still standing / despite the blood / that builds a boat underneath the tongue /” 
...
oh momma im so sorry by Jada Young

my momma once told me 
that being black
is 
beautiful

but sometimes i wonder if that's true
because we're dying
left and right
for reasons that shouldn't matter

meanwhile lil' ole connor
the blonde haired boy
with porcelain skin
gets to live his life peacefully
and grow-
-up into whatever he chooses to be

as my body rots away
ever so slowly
trapped 6 ft under

i can still feel the 
cracked.
rough. 
fingers.
gripping my neck
my-breath-becoming-shorter-by-the-second-but-then-i-am-reminded-that-i'm-alive-and-breathing

it's okay.
haha.
and it's so funny
because i'm alive
and breathing
but am I really
living
if it means protesting
in the streets
every second
every day
every week
every year
yet nothing is changing

and i still find myself
defending a country
that never defended me
so how much longer?
how many more?

because i can feel my body giving out
on me
like an old woman on her death bed
but I'm only 20 and 
~oh so healthy~

i don't think i can continue on
much longer
so please momma
i just wanna know why you lied
to me
and made it seem like
being black would be easy

but oh momma,
i don't blame you for lying
because you were just
trying
to protect me
from the system 
that has failed you
time and time again

and oh momma,
i can't keep going
so fuck this i'm out.





]]> 2021-12-10 04:48:57 UTC https://padlet.com/jadadorothy/zbz0w1k4ttozxfoa/wish/1939711970 Harryette Mullen, "We Are Not Responsible" jadadorothy https://padlet.com/jadadorothy/zbz0w1k4ttozxfoa/wish/1939716214 “Step aside, please, while our officer inspects your bad attitude./You have no rights we are bound to respect./Please remain calm, or we can’t be held responsible/for what happens to you.”
...
The American Dream

Sometimes I find myself thinking
Laying lifeless on my bed

Dreaming.
Picturing what it would be like
If it were me next

Crying.
Screaming.

My hands grasping
For the blank blue sky
As my chest heaves in and out,
The bloody pool of hell

Dripping.
Slowly.

And for a second I feel at peace
then-suddenly-it-feels-like-I-can’t-breathe

Crying.
Screaming.

The pressure on my neck 
building,
As I continue to plead for
My life.
My life…

2 kids, my husband, 
And a Goldendoodle dog in my
White picket fence home,
The American dream.

But a dream it only was
Because here I am
Dying on a sidewalk
The concrete holes filling with

My blood.

Dripping.
Slowly.

And finally I feel peace....

#sayhername
#justiceforblackwomen
#justiceforjada
#stopthehate
#stopkillingus
#blmprotest

But the hashtags no longer matter
Because I am dead
My face plastered on a t-shirt
RIP Jada

whatever the fuck RIP means
cuz RIP doesn't mean shit
when I didn't die peacefully

Crying.
Screaming.

I awake from my dream
only to realize that what I felt
wasn't real
but a possibility.







]]> 2021-12-10 04:53:43 UTC https://padlet.com/jadadorothy/zbz0w1k4ttozxfoa/wish/1939716214 Claudia Rankine, "Citizen: An American Lyric" https://padlet.com/jadadorothy/zbz0w1k4ttozxfoa/wish/1946151486 “because white men can’t/police their imagination/black people are dying”
...
Internal Monologue by Jada Young

Every now and then
I wonder 
what my life would be like
if I was born 
a white man

what my family would be like
what my love life would be like
what my college experience would be like
what my daily experiences would be like

but then I remember
that I was born a Black woman
and I don't get to blissfully wonder

because at some point in time
I have to seriously consider
if I could even
birth children
into-this-god-forsaken-world

where being Black
means getting behind the wheel
and not knowing

whether or not
you'll make it home

whether or not
your guts will be pouring
pools of red blood
from your precious body

whether or not
you'll find yourself
pleading for your last breath
on a sidewalk
in a neighborhood you called home

I just want to know why 
I couldn't have it easy
like the white boy in lecture
who sits next to me
 
it makes me wonder
what if the system were built
so that it worked for people
like me
because-I'm-so-tired-of-simply-existing-in-a-white-man's-world

and now.
I feel.
my body. 
slowing down.
my heartbeat.
coming to.
a sudden end.




]]> 2021-12-14 04:27:38 UTC https://padlet.com/jadadorothy/zbz0w1k4ttozxfoa/wish/1946151486 Claudia Rankine, "Citizen: An American Lyric" https://padlet.com/jadadorothy/zbz0w1k4ttozxfoa/wish/1946158724 “...there exists the medical term—John Henryism—for people exposed to stresses stemming from racism.” 
...
Propranolol by Jada Young

i find myself counting the cracks
on the sidewalk
1, 2, 3, 4
don't step on it
or you'll break your mother's back
is what I tell myself
to distract my mind
from the chaos
of this place 
I'm supposed to call home
but home is a weird way
to describe this place
when  they don't give a fuck
about the Blacks
~oops I mean Black people~
is what the white girl
in my class tells me
and she says it's okay
because she believes
in BLM 
and I find myself 
still counting the cracks
on the sidewalk
5, 6, 7, 8
only this time
my thoughts are interrupted
by the white boys in a jeep
who yell out nigger
and try to run me over
my mind replaying the moment
over 
and over
and over
sometimes 
I wish
they would've
did it 
because I feel like
a broken record 
repeating myself 
to an admin
who kept fighting us
on taking down
niggerhead rock 
because they'd rather
die on a hill for donations
than die on a hill
for their Black students.



]]> 2021-12-14 04:34:20 UTC https://padlet.com/jadadorothy/zbz0w1k4ttozxfoa/wish/1946158724