"america’s Err BNB: Vol. 3: The Bullet"
40x30
acrylic on canvas
$2,000
This is the third of three in the "america's Err BNB" mini-series within this body of work.
In this series I posit three things I feel america has used to control and strike fear in the black body.
The third...the bullet.
This minute shard of metal which changes the lives of generations of people is what I call the "neo-noose". Instead of angry lynch mobs carrying out the murder we have many police officers and other vigilantes utilizing the bullet as a new version of power.
Philando, Laquan, Walter, Oscar, Tamir, Trayvon, Terence, Jordan, Sean, Stephon, Eleanor, Breonna, Jamar, Duante, etc.
All outlined by america.
america’s Err BNB Vol. 3 The Bullet
Black roses have plots
Not the Oscar winning journey scribes
But where head stones are inhabitants
Pressing down/through the soil/
Onto the heads
Of black boys and black girls
That didn’t escape america’s excuse
Of “being a threat” or just being happy/
Black and happy is a threat to america.
How can one have the audacity to smile, scream in joy and be excellent in all things
In the face of the barrel with the scent of society on its breath?
america hates what it can't crush
so she gives us yellow tape to
Capture the memories/boundary the tears/
bound our hands behind our backs
and squeezes the trigger.
america looks at us and sees the pain
she has caused
and wants us to die because she is too
afraid to live.