{"id":428,"date":"2019-05-19T20:16:52","date_gmt":"2019-05-19T20:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iforcolor.org\/word\/?p=428"},"modified":"2019-05-25T01:29:31","modified_gmt":"2019-05-25T01:29:31","slug":"hands-up-dont-shoot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iforcolor.org\/word\/hands-up-dont-shoot\/","title":{"rendered":"Hands Up Don’t Shoot"},"content":{"rendered":"

HANDS UP DON’T SHOOT by Ayanna Besson<\/strong><\/p>\n

HANDS UP, DON\u2019T SHOOT!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

My brothers and sisters whose voices were taken,<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I scream for you\u2026..HANDS <\/strong>UP, DON\u2019T SHOOT!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

You are the reason we stand here today.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

United as a people, we come to together and we say<\/strong><\/h2>\n

THIS IS NOT OKAY,<\/strong><\/h2>\n

And we refuse to continue to be victims of this system.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

HANDS UP, DON\u2019T SHOOT!…….We remember\u2026\u2026..<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Amadou Diallo, my brother,I scream for you<\/strong><\/h2>\n

That winter day in February,<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You became a piece of that strange fruit,<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Swinging from that tree<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As 19 bullets pierced through you.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Pulling out your ID?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

HANDS UP, DON\u2019T SHOOT!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Prince Jones, my brother, I scream for you<\/strong><\/h2>\n

That autumn day in September,<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You became a piece of that strange fruit<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Swinging from that tree<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As 8 bullets pierced through you.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Mistaken identity?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

HANDS UP, DON\u2019T SHOOT!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Rekia Boyd, my sister I scream for you<\/strong><\/h2>\n

That spring day in March,<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You became a piece of that strange fruit<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Swinging from that tree<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As 1 fatal bullet pierced through you.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Reckless conduct?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

HANDS UP DON\u2019T SHOOT<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Because you stood your ground,<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I have the right to open my mouth<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Yes, I\u2019m tired and\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Yes, I\u2019m angry and…<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Yes, I will fight \u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n

for my civil rights that\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n

my ancestors died for…<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Yes, I will fight for those whose rights have been violated.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For those who have been silenced.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Those who have been murdered…<\/strong><\/h2>\n

HANDS UP, DON\u2019T SHOOT!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Who will protect us from our protectors?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Who will listen, and recognize our efforts?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Who will stand up and say, I will take no more?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Lie on my back, keep quiet, and kiss the dirt on the \u201cmasters\u201d floor?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

HANDS UP DON\u2019T SHOOT\u2026\u2026..<\/strong><\/h2>\n

We refuse to continue to be victims, our lives matter.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Black-lives-matter.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Alberta Spriull, my mother, your life mattered.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Trayvon Martin, my son, your life mattered.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Mike Brown, my brother, your life mattered.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Eric Garner, my father, your life mattered.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Human life\u2026.MATTERS.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

HANDS UP!\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026…Don\u2019t shoot.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By: Ayanna Dominique Diarra Besson<\/p>\n

\"shutterstock_211773628-800x430\"<\/h2>\n

(C) AYANNA BESSON<\/p>\n

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2015<\/p>\n

SUSQUEHANNA UNIVERSITY<\/p>\n

(C) Iforcolor.org<\/p>\n

\"GetAttachment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HANDS UP DON’T SHOOT by Ayanna Besson HANDS UP, DON\u2019T SHOOT!\u00a0 My brothers and sisters whose voices were taken, I scream for you\u2026..HANDS UP, DON\u2019T SHOOT! You are the reason we stand here today. United as a people, we come to together and we say THIS IS NOT OKAY, And we refuse to continue to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iforcolor.org\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iforcolor.org\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iforcolor.org\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iforcolor.org\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iforcolor.org\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.iforcolor.org\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":907,"href":"https:\/\/www.iforcolor.org\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions\/907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iforcolor.org\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iforcolor.org\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iforcolor.org\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iforcolor.org\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}