Category: Unity

Let's Make America Again

6/4/2020

With Awareness Comes Change

I never knew I was different until the 3rd grade.
In Mrs. Cronk's class we were studying slavery. A boy sitting next to me told me clean up his desk because I was brown and that meant I was his slave. I went into the girls bathroom, looked in the mirror and noticed the color of my skin for the first time. For the first time, I saw was different. Growing up in an all white community wasn't easy then. It's not easy now.

As I grew up, I used poetry to process my thoughts and feelings. When it came to my race, I didn't know what to write. It wasn't until I read this poem that I found the words I had been searching for all along. 'Let America Be America Again', written by American poet Langston Hughes back in 1935, speaks of the racial inequality in this country that existed then as it does now, alongside an enduring dream for equality.

I found hope in his words. I share that hope now with my voice. Narrating this poem brought me to tears that you can hear (if you listen close). My hope is that the confidence I found in Langston's words will be seen, heard and felt by all.

In these days and times, awareness is needed more than ever. As Co-Founder of Awareness Ties, I'm proud to say we are committed to being a stage for stories to be seen and voices to be heard. We believe that it is only by coming together in conversation that our country's narrative for social equity can be changed. Unity will come only with understanding. That understanding begins with awareness and continues with actions. And actions are needed now.

Allie McGuire
Co-Founder & Owner
Awareness Ties

READ THE POEM'S WORDS

HEAR THE POEM'S STORY

LET AMERICA BE AMERICA AGAIN
By: Langston Hughes

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet todayâ€”O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must beâ€”the land where every man is free.
The land that's mineâ€”the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!

How Can I Help?

If you are asking yourself this question, our ambassador, Dr. Dela Taghipour, has a few suggestions:

- Contact state and local leaders and demand justice, accountability, and policy changes.
www.house.gov/representatives
www.senate.gov/senators

- Donate
Black Lives Matter
www.blacklivesmatter.com
NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund
www.naacpldf.org
Know Your Rights Camp
www.knowyourrightscamp.com/legal
Communities United Against Police Brutality
www.cuapb.org
The Minnesota Freedom Fund
www.minnesotafreedomfund.org

- Sign petitions
www.change.org
Search for these keywords:
Justice for George Floyd
Justice for Breonna Taylor
Justice for Ahmuh Arbery

- Shop and support Black-owned restaurants and businesses.

- Buy and read books by Black authors.

- Talk to your children about racism but also talk to your parents and relatives that may have misunderstandings about systemic oppression.

- Share information on your social media pages to help uplift the Black community and to help support this fight against what is so unjustly happening.

- If you go to peaceful protests, be prepared for what may happen. Take a bottle of milk, water, clean towels. Always let someone know where you are and if possible do not go alone.

- Check on your friends, ask THEM what THEY need.

And please, when it's time, exercise your constitutional right to VOTE!

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