Necessary Conditions
I WANT THE COTTON BACK
I WANT THE FIELDS IT GREW FROM
I WANT THE FOOD IT BOUGHT
I WANT THE CLOTHES IT WEAVED
I WANT THE BLOOD IT SUMMONED
THE SUN IT DEMANDED
THE SCARS IT PAID
I WANT THE COTTON BACK
I WANT ITS LEAVES
ITS STEMS
ITS THORNS
ITS ROOTS
I WANT EVERYTHING
BUT ITS WHITE
I WANT THE COTTON BACK.
WE’LL TAKE THE COTTON BACK.
WE’LL TAKE BACK EVERYTHING IT TOOK OF US.
Copyright © 2024 by Justice Ameer. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 24, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.
“Expanding on the work of [Karl] Marx, W. E. B. Du Bois recognized the enslaved Black worker as ‘the founding stone’ of American capitalism, and thus, the system of chattel slavery was a necessary condition for the industrial development of white Western colonial powers and the global market they dominate today. True racial justice requires a complete return and redistribution of the wealth generated by exploited African labor—back to Black, Indigenous, and colonized peoples. Reparations will be achieved, whether it is offered or it must be taken.”
—Justice Ameer
Justice Ameer
Justice Ameer is a poet and lives on the lands stewarded by the Pokanoket, Narragansett, and Wampanoag, known today as Providence, Rhode Island.