Today I hug my boys knowing that that there will be a day that I can no longer protect them from the cruelty of our world.

Today I hug my boys with the knowledge that for all of their dreams and aspirations, for all of their hard work and integrity, for all of their education and success, that they will face times in their lives where they will be treated as second class citizens, if not like animals.

Today I hug my boys holding back tears, knowing that one day I might have to bury them just like Trayvon’s parents buried him; because this is still America, we are still black, and they are still suspects susceptible of having their human rights violated without provocation or reason.

Today I hug my boys the way my mother and my grandmother hugged me; with the knowledge that justice was never intended to apply to the darker complected Americans.

Today I hug my boys… because I know we live in the land of the free lie, the place that enslaved my ancestors and broke my grandparents back, the place that blackened my mother’s heart and tainted her hope, the place that taught me at the most inappropriate age about racism and class, the place that has shown me time and time again that it’s more likely that this empire will crumble like the empires before it rather than evolve into the dream it pretends to be.

Today I hug my boys, because I want to see their innocent smiles illuminate hope for as long as they possibly can; but I know it’s a matter of days before those beautiful smiles are attacked by the atrocity of our American injustice.

My country tis of thee
Where is the liberty?
From trees we swing? ~ Sean King