Poems and Songs
Poems and Songs by Year 10 students
These terrific poems and songs were all inspired by the novel studied in English this term, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, and the works of rapper 2Pac Shakur.
Newton’s 3rd Law
People too judgy these days
I can’t even walk the streets no more
Always getting dirty looks and stank eyes,
From all white folk who think I broke the law
Don’t they understand? Can’t they hear our cries?
Or they too busy sending us to jail with their dumb**s lies.
Too many of us have been taken.
The white men of society rule
They biased in court, and murder our freedom
Even though we done nothin’ wrong, it’s ****ing cruel.
They all act like we invaders, to attack their precious kingdom
Although in the end we are all the same.
Enough is enough
We will stride ‘til the end
Throughout all of the obstacles we overcome,
A lesson is learnt, and a hand we’ll lend
We’ve been in the shadows for way too long
Now we fight back.
For every action there will be an equal and opposite reaction.
Dean Lykokapis
Different
Our culture is not your aesthetic
Our culture is not exotic
Our culture is not your costume
DO cultural appreciate
DON’T cultural appropriate
We do not all sound the same
We do not all act the same
We do not all look the same
We are not the same
We are our own
Blacks are not all thugs and prisoners
Asians are not all smart or small-eyed
Islanders are not all gangster
Must we all be in anger
For you to realise?
Vivian Luc
Chain of Hatred
Red is the colour we all bleed
Shoot me, shoot you
Change is what we really need
I hate to say it, time is ticking
400 years wasted, no time to start picking
No one is born racist, it’s something we’ve learnt
We need to rebuild as the bridges were burnt
Only way to stop it, is not engraving it in your brains
Needa do it quick, so people don’t fear chains
Come on, come on, I can’t breathe
Come on, we need a change
It’s not the way it is
Stop the hatred, it’s turning us against each others
After all, we all came from our mothers
Not all cops are bad, the good ones are here
They need to use their voice so we can all hear
It won’t stop the people that are dying
But it will stop the people from crying
So, let’s all plead
And start the change
As that’s all we need
Vincent Nguyen
Revolutions
Can’t go outside without being stared at.
Robotic cameras ‘n’ blank faces.
Why do you behave around me like that,
Wait for me to slip, making your cases?
If the world’s against me for being free
Rebellious spirit you want to subdue
And in your one definitive decree
Do you see me as somehow worse than you?!
There’s a feeling inside I can’t explain,
A dark troubling thought making me deranged,
That there is still some kind of cold disdain.
Something is wrong and it’s that nothing’s changed!
An endless cycle: can we break the chain
Of revolution’s never-ending pain?
Angelo Koulouris
The Criminal System of Injustice
Central Park in New York City, Spring 1989:
A jogger was brutally r***ed, her body left to die.
What was perhaps the biggest case New York had ever seen,
Was left to be investigated by corrupt police.
Wise, McCray, and Richardson, Santana, and Salaam,Five black boys so terrified, their innocence so clear.
Why they were convicted? False confessions forced out of fear,They’d become a scapegoat so white New York could feel at ease.
Auburn Prison, New York, April of 2002:
Matias Reyes confessed to the crime.
The group thus to be known as the Exonerated Five,
And the system as the criminal system of injustice.
It is a constant occurrence, like the beating of a heart,
Black lives seen as less by police forces and the law.
Their story exposed the criminal justice system’s flaws;
So long as racism exists, true justice won’t ever.
Chloe Jolme
12 Roses
A packet of seeds to grow some flowers.
A farmer plants them in the sun.
For twelve baby roses,
Their life has just begun.
Their colours flourish as they grow.
These beauties nature has built.
But as time goes on,
The farmer lets the last plant wilt.
Eleven flowers are blooming,
But the twelfth is now dead,
For eleven roses were white
And the twelfth one was red.
Anonymous
The Colour That Is Underneath
T- There was blood seeping out of the wound like red teardrops
H- Hung her head like a dying flower
E- Empty feelings like an abandoned house
H-Hugging a blanket like a memory
A- Anger as Starr realised, they were roses grown in concrete gardens
T- Truth is like a bad taste on her tongue
E- Each word was a tiny bayonet pointed firmly at the colour of our skin
U- Underneath we are just like you but not the colour that you see
G- Gardens are ravaged in this world called life
I- I keep crying tears of dew
V- Violence and rioting show waves of hate
E- Equality is a guest who comes to insert our rights
Danielle Griffin
Racism Song
The Earth, is begging, for help,
I’m sitting here wondering how this will end,
It’s gone for too long,
Breaking the rules of prejudice,
We, all, have rights,
{Chorus}-
Stop this now,
End it here,
People waiting,
Black and white, protests,
We’re all complaining,
When will this end,
I can’t put words to comprehend.
It’s just a colour,
It’s just a race,
Why should we care?
We’re all one,
We’re all unique,
We don’t deserve, to live on this earth,
If we continue these ego acts.
{Final Chorus}
Black and white,
We all deserve a right, to live on this earth.
Stop, this now
End it here,
People in tears,
Protests plus the virus, link together
Because if we don’t end it here,
It’ll spread like the virus.
Golpar Goli
Riots
People getting shot cause they be livin’ throughout the hood
Kids see people get shot before they get through their damn childhood
Drive byes rattle people with too many bullets
Everyone is not far from being safe, not even some black tourists.
They all grow up surrounded by a sick family that is bias Cause of this now there are lots of riots
People wanting others to wake up from their dreams to the reality.There are activists just waking others up by stinging them like a bee.
Riots causing even more police brutality not only against blacks
Causing people not to want to go out as they just sit home and relax
This means smaller riots and the blind government doesn’t notice that we need change
This just makes a fair few people mad and then they enrage.
Riots brought attention to the situation at hand
It takes a group of individuals to stand
We should never stop protesting if we want to reshape
We should never have to had to protest for an escape.
Ethan Harris
Racism around the world
Racism around the world is a very big issue
Many people start to cry so they use a tissue
Many people are angry, and they are sad
Many people think this is very bad
People call others very bad names
And that is very bad, and it shames
It’s not just names but it’s death
When people get shot is their last breath
In America they have it very bad there
It mostly happens everywhere
I feel very sorry for those people
They must feel very dreadful.
Jimmy Crofts
My name is Starr Carter
My name is Starr Carter and I grew up to live, listening to
That Legend 'Pac rapping bout The Hate You Give.
My daddy always taught me from an early age,
The Black Panthers Rule and Racist Cops Rage.
The school I go to is Williamson, it's mainly white, apart from Sekani,
Myself and Seven. My boyfriend’s white, and that is no issue to my mum,
Uncle Carl, but my daddy he’s so against it, but if I behave at school like
I do at home, I'm from the Garden ...and that’s totally ghetto.
That night driving around with Khalil, I told him one little simple rule.
“Khalil, put your hands on the dash where the cop can see ‘em’
But he didn’t listen and look where it got him.
Bang, I screamed Bang Bang again, bleeding and dying out on the streets alone;
From all those bullets and all the hate that 115 would and could repeat.
I'm afraid. I'm afraid to use my voice, would Khalil have spoken, shouted for our lives?
Would he protest and stand up for what is right, would he be brave unlike me?
We didn’t speak for Natasha as we were too young,
But now that we are older, here’s your time, no here's my time to speak the truth.
Black rights matter, yo, and that's here to stay.
My place is here and that's no debate,
You can kill us, slave us, beat us to death, you are all
Racist in one way and we are all against.
All our voices
All our dreams
And all our lives matter.
And all be roses that grow in the concrete.
Hannah Brock