By Button Poetry
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Ebony Stewart, performing at Park Square Theater in St. Paul, MN.
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:01
white men say weird things to me or do
00:07
creepy they think I should be
00:09
flattered by I’ve never dated a white
00:12
man before I like to think it’s because
00:15
I’ve never wanted to stimulate my
00:16
genetic trauma or wanted that kind of
00:20
success to validate my accomplishments I
00:23
don’t think my ancestors would consider
00:25
their rape as race play and call it sexy
00:28
when I was in high school I remember my
00:33
bus driver pulling the bus to the side
00:35
of the road near the woods some folks
00:39
think the hood ain’t got woods but some
00:42
hoods do and I said stiff rabbit and
00:48
waiting it is in the silence where white
00:52
men become the ones in every movie I’ve
00:54
ever seen killers who still receive
00:56
praises Freddy Krueger’s and Jason’s he
01:00
moves in slow motion to the back of the
01:03
bus he wants me to know I’m seeing
01:06
exactly what I think I’m seeing and I
01:08
want to see how fast I can run but I
01:11
can’t move so I try and disappear
01:17
because how else are black girls
01:21
supposed to use their magic but it’s my
01:26
heartbeat that gives me away as he
01:29
touches my hair my shoulder my thigh he
01:35
says every day you leave and come back
01:40
the same pretty
01:46
pretty so pretty and that’s it that’s
01:56
all he wanted me to know he said it
02:00
three times so it must be true and
02:02
traumatising lets me off the bus and I
02:06
never skip track practice again in
02:09
college a white boy from across the hall
02:12
is sitting in my room one night on my
02:15
bed in the dark with his pants unzipped
02:20
says he mistook my room for his if I
02:25
move well they call it manslaughter or
02:29
self-defense in Boston a white man told
02:35
me I look just like his mother and I
02:39
wondered if he meant his caregiver
02:42
another one in Houston snapped the
02:45
close-up and showed me see now I own you
02:49
forever a white man in Wisconsin flicks
02:53
his cigarette at me and promises to find
02:56
out what hotel I’m staying in one time
02:58
in Seattle I disappeared in a white
03:02
man’s blues I can’t remember if his name
03:06
was William Robert Richard Garry Ted or
03:16
any other white man whose obsession with
03:19
killing gets romanticized for someone’s
03:21
breath taking someone’s breath away for
03:25
collecting screams in jars in basements
03:29
and attics his voice was gentle and
03:31
conning like like I better be smart
03:36
enough to keep my freedom like I better
03:40
know how to stay in my own body he asked
03:46
if if I want to go back to his place to
03:48
eat some roasted pumpkin seeds that’s
03:54
some weird to say right
04:01
creepy huh
04:04
white men taught me that being a
04:06
predator is a compliment that I should
04:09
smile while walking or running or hiding
04:12
Shaniqua shantia and a harmony kunia aka
04:16
no one turns over the earth when a black
04:18
girl goes missing that it’s only a
04:21
matter of time before no one finds me
04:31
[Applause]
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video
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