The Banning of “The 1619 Project”
by Tyrece Jefferson
There’s no “patriotic education”
But to enslave Black lives.
We knew before “Ruby Bridges”
Where the fact lies.
Tell us the truth,
not a bunch of lies.
We still see segregated Black kids
in school lunch lines.
The world still racist
No matter how they may screen.
We have known brutal oppression
Since the Confederacy of 1619.
Is this ban gonna make a difference
or expose the truth?
This is not a race theory,
these facts untold to the youth.
How can they deny
they stole Texas from Mexico
Hate embedded in the US lie
they protect with their show.
Now Tennessee says remove “Maus”
from their school libraries
I can’t believe how America
has become such cry-babies.
They mad at Art Speigelman
for drawing the horrendous crimes.
Yet our enslavement wasn’t abolished
til 90 years from independence times.
They want to censor books
and keep speech under control.
We have bled to fight fascism,
In the name of that, preach your soul.
They know that Black Liberation inspired
a revolutionary upsurge;
they tryin’ to hide their racism & sexism
by book burning and a corrupt purge.
But what matters most.
Black lives or white silence?
We need humanity and equality
before we ignite violence.
The banning of “1619”
is a Ku Klux Klan scheme.
Tyrece Jefferson is incarcerated in the CA prison-industrial complex at Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad CA, so he knows whereof he speaks when he talks about enslavement.
