We have to see that we do not
Lend ourselves to the Wrong we condemn.²
Can we see another’s Woe—and not be in sorrow too?
Can we see another’s Grief—and not seek for kind relief?
Can we see a falling Tear—and not feel my sorrows share?³
The choice: to speak or not to speak, we Speak—
Those of whom we speak have not that choice …⁴
To those who would sleep through
The Wounds they inflict on others,
We offer pain to help them Awaken!⁵
Those who profess to favor Freedom,
And yet they depreciate Agitation,
Want Crops without plowing.⁶
The hands of none of us are clean if we
Bend not our energies to Righting these great wrongs:⁷
We must see their Needs, and Act to meet them—⁸
Justice, to be done, demands some practice on
Whoever comes in any way bent to her hand⁹
We would rather be Accountable for our
Mistakes than forgiven for our Inaction.¹⁰
¹ Chilon, tr. Hicks in Laërtius Lives of the Eminent Philosophers
² Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
³ William Blake, On Another’s Sorrow
⁴ Denise Levertov, Protestors
⁵ Krista Franklin, Manifesto, or Ars Poetica #2
⁶ Frederick Douglass, West India Emancipation (1857)
⁷ W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folks
⁸ Mother Teresa, Her Essential Wisdom
⁹ Alan Dugan, Defendant
¹⁰ #asiansforblacklives, quoted in Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy