I pledge allegiance to your flag

I pledge allegiance to your flag,

Of the United States of America,

And to your republic, for which it stands,

One nation, under God, indivisible,

With liberty and justice for who?

For you, it seems, but not for us,

Not for our people, so please stop saying,

We're equal with your flag of red, white, and blue.

With one hand, you beat us into submission,

Black and blue, while with the other,

You beat us until we can't walk straight.

Then, you put us in chains, if we're lucky,

But for the unlucky ones, you pull the trigger.

You take our lives as if it's a sick tribute

To your privilege, and then you bury us.

You bury us in a prison system

That aims to disenfranchise us,

Or in the dirt beneath our feet.

All because of the same racism

That you claim no longer exists.

But we know the truth,

That racism is alive and thriving,

Making us resist, dismissing us at the door,

Watching us in your stores, and so much more.

That racism is the reason why saying

Your pledge of allegiance feels like a root canal,

Or whips impacting our flesh,

Or a baton to our heads, or a bullet in our backs.

It feels like tear gas at a Black Lives Matter protest.

That racism is the reason why three women

Clutch their purses as I walk by,

And it hurts to remember,

That the system I was born into was built to work against me.

It hurts to remember the hurt, the pain,

The constant struggle for justice.

It hurts to know that you invest more in wildlife

Than you ever will in the preservation of Black life.

So, let me ask you a question,

When you witness another Black body laid on your concrete,

What do you see? Another murder? Another sad story?

Another funeral? I see a child that lost their father.

I see a single woman trying to raise a man,

Another broken home leading to another child

Suffering the same fate as their father.

And that means another Black woman outliving her son.

This country practices a culture of unequal rights for Blacks,

While we hear the saying, "Black don't crack,"

You shatter our melanin like glass.

My heart breaks for everyone you lay at our feet,

For every memory that resurfaces,

For every night filled with PTSD,

And my disdain for this country reminds me,

That I'm far from patriotic.

So, it's ironic that I still pledge allegiance

To your flag, of the United States of America,

And to your republic, for which it stands,

One nation, under God, indivisible,

With liberty and justice for who?