"Don't let the fascists speak."
"We want to hear what they have to say."
"Keep them out of the classroom."
"Everybody is entitled to freedom of speech."
I am a child of america
a step child
raised in the back room
yet taught
taught how toast
in her front room.
my mind jumps
the voices of students
screaming
insults threats
"Let the Nazis speak"
"Let the Nazis speak"
Everyone is entitled
to speak
I sit a greasy-legged
Black child
in a Black part of town
look to the Black teacher
the Bill of Rights
guarantees
us all the right
my mind
remembers chants
article I article I
& my innards churn
they remember
the Black teacher
in the Black school
in the Black part
of the very white town
who stopped us
when we attacked
the upper principal
the white Board
of mis-Education
cast-off books
illustrated with
cartoons &
words of wisdom
written by white
children in the
other part of town
missing pages
caricatures
of hanging niggers--
the bill of rights
was written to
protect
us
my mind remembers
& my innards churn
conjures images
police
break up
illegal demonstrations
illegal assemblies
conjure images
of a Black Panther
"if tricky Dick
tries to stop us
we'll stop him"
conjure image
of that same Black man
going to jail
for threatening
the life of
THE PRESIDENT
every citizen
is entitled to
freedom of speech
my mind remembers
& my innards churn
conjure images
of homosexuals in camps
of socialists in camps
"Let the Nazis speak"
"Let the Nazis speak"
faces in a college
classroom
"You're being a fascist too."
"We want to hear what
they have to say"
faces in
a college classroom
young white faces
speak let them speak
speak let them speak
Blacks, jews some whites
seize the bullhorn
We don't want to hear
your socialist rhetoric"
socialist rhetoric
survival
rhetoric
the supreme court
says it is illegal
to scream fire
in a crowded theater
to scream fire
in a crowed theater
causes people to panic
to run to hurt each other
my mind remembers
& now i know
what my innards
say
illegal to cause
people
to panic
to run
to hurt
there is
no contradiction
what the nazis say
will cause
people
to
ME.
From Pat Parker, The Complete Works of Pat Parker (Sapphic Classics), edited by Julie R. Enszer, introduction by Judy Grahn (Brooklyn, NY: A Midsummer Night's Press; Dover. FL: Sinister Wisdom, 2016), pp. 71-74.
