Whole campaign an' dint neither one of them joker talk about right or wrong. We knowed it was trouble. We been livin' with trouble for awhile. - June Jordan

These poems
they are things I do
in the dark
reaching for you
whoever you are

from “These Poems

Most Americans have imagined that problems affecting Black life follow from pathogenic attributes of Black people and not from malfunctions of the state. Most Americans have sought to identify themselves with the powerful interests that oppress poor and minority peoples, perhaps hoping to keep themselves on the shooting side of the target range.

This is the meaning of poverty: when you have nothing better to do than to hate somebody who, just exactly like yourself, has nothing better to do than to pick on you instead of trying to figure out how come there's nothing better to do.