Remember Me? (Poem)

Remember Me? The man who had to go through the back door of the restaurant, who made it possible for you to eat at “Red Lobster” in unbiased peace. I faced constant emotional and mental devastation, for your party of two reservation, but instead of honoring my memory, you order a side of cocktail sauce, and forget about me. How could you neglect to remember the obstacles that handicapped my life, as you demand a refill of “Sprite”? I had to literally fight to enter establishments that you occupy freely. I had to sit in the “Colored” section of the restaurant being habitually ignored, and you walk into a restaurant today, and sit wherever your heart desires and get service?

No “Colored” drinking fountains, no “Jim Crow laws”, no segregative signs in the window, no café with separate entrances for blacks and whites, and no one’s being brutally murdered for voting or for seeking an education? You can go to a junior college and register for classes, and register to vote, free of oppression, and yet you fail to do neither. You must have forgotten about me, as you sip on your Raspberry Iced Tea, with a glass half empty just like your brain.You’re getting a full assortment of drinks in places that wouldn’t even given me a seat, let alone a glass of tap water and a menu. You’re receiving meals inside of places that wouldn’t have even allowed me inside the door, on a stormy rain riddled day. You’re getting service from people who never even spoke to me, unless they were calling me a ________. I left it blank, because they always filled in the blanks with so much hateful stuff, it would fill up a dozen reams of paper front and back, but you sit at a table in a diner unappreciative and prejudiced, like the culprits that initiated this black holocaust.

How could you forget about me, and live your life as though I never existed? It’s sad enough that you’ve abandoned your children, abandoned your stature as a contributor to society by neglecting to improve and rehabilitate your community, but you forgot to order something very important to go with your entrée. Dignity. It cannot be bought or borrowed, and many blacks don’t have an ounce of it. From what we wear, to where we live, to where we eat, to how we live, our sense of worth has been compromised, forgotten, and in many cases lost. February is the month, when we pay homage to profound African American men and women who suffered indescribable discrimination and hardships to advance our race. March through January, is when we honor them by living our lives with perseverance, humility, and most importantly, dignity!

By: Hendrick J.

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