We are here
They were forced, bought and sold
To lands far far away
Identities, cultures, languages & inventions
Taken and turned
African, Indian, Indigenous and many others from colonised lands
Lives stolen, and never returned to their promised lands
The time has come
The time is now
To make a change
Together
My poem, written as I sat in the garden on a bean bag soaking up the warmth of the sun whilst my son ran innocently and playfully in and out of our garden during lockdown one - I needed to write to express my emotions. The poem is about a beginning, when lands were so-called "discovered" and then later colonised, well, most of us "know" some were already occupied by the natives. We were and continue to be taught and fed information by the others or the system to see and treat others in a different way - which led to hatred and racism towards others...continuing to this day. I didn't published my poem as I lacked confidence and lockdown and family life took over. But it's here now, thanks to the people that build me up and now that I have a little more time from lockdown three.
People easily forget and life continues. Progress has been made, companies have made pledges and supported others, people have realised, they want to help and be an ally, but equally, there are lots of people who don't care or have forgotten about it all or continue to be racist. Yes, we have to move on, but this should always be on our mind, conversations and action should continue. George Floyd's death hasn't fixed racism towards black people, they continue to be murdered or bullied across the world because of the hatred towards the colour of their skin. I'm not a historian nor an expert on anything in particular, but this goes back centuries, and in countries where black people are a very small minority or do not exist - there is also racism towards black people intertwined with prejudices against having a darker skin tone and somehow a message was spread. I suppose it would need a whole book to discover how it all started...books which I'm sure are out there. It then goes on to include people's race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age and the list continues...It gets worse when you think about the intersection of these categories.
I live in hope that this and future generations will create an equal and respected world and that that is the absolute majority...after all, in the grand scheme of things, we only have a short life span - why waste it with hatred towards others based on their identity.