I Am

I Am, by Rmari Fisher

Students from Manual High School in Denver visited KGNU recently to record some of their poetry. In their 10th grade American Literature class, the students have been writing, discussing, and reading about “The American Dream”. They’ve been inspired to write their own poetry on this theme. KGNU will be featuring these poems throughout January.

I Am kgnu

I am an attention seeker, I am a young believer
But because I am black I can’t be an achiever.

I am not worthy to go to a four year college,
I am not capable to have power and knowledge.
I am only good enough to be an inmate,
and be behind the black prison gate.

I will be a lowered class and will never move up
because I don’t work hard enough.
I am a savage colored girl, who gets watched at the stores
because I will steal something.
I am a crying soul that hasn’t been heard,
I am an innocent person who was born with no worth.

Am I the present bondservant with the invisible chains who can’t earn a better life?
Why do statistics tell me who I can only be in life?
Why don’t I have supplies for school and the ivory colored students
have anything they want? I don’t see a difference between us
except that I live in poverty and they have the riches?
Why do I get treated like a criminal because of my ethnicity?

Fourth and fifth amendment doesn’t feel real to me.
Why am I being pulled over by cops after leaving a Mcdonalds?
They say,
it’s your headlights,
but there’s nothing wrong with them! Why am I feeling threatened? Why are there 5
cop cars surrounding us over our head lights? Why do I feel like I will be the next
Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin, Ezell Ford, and John Crawford,
everytime I see an officer or get stopped by one?
2014 why don’t we still have our complete freedom or our rights?
My ancestors were brought to this country to be slaves.
Brought here to build up the economy and make the real bread.
Seen as ⅗ humans and property. Couldn’t be taught
literate or arithmetic, just taught to please the white master and till this day those are the teachings.

I won’t follow that.
I’m not giving up
I’m going to a four year college
I will gain power and I’ll have knowledge
I will never be a statistic.
I won’t let the unlicensed white power above me push me around,
I won’t let them take away my power.
I won’t let them take away my rights.
I won’t let them forget who the real founding fathers of this country are.
I will keep revealing the injustices done to us 3/5 humans.
I won’t let those who have been killed because of their color be forgotten.
I am proud to be who I am.
And i won’t change that.
I am melting pot and a woman in this world
There is worth in that.