The Roots of Oppression 

A system based on a broken foundation will ultimately be a broken system

Abolition:

“early 16th century: from Latin abolitio(n- ), from abolere ‘destroy’.”

-Oxford Dictionary

To destroy a centuries old system 

A seemingly incurable disease

Founded on a cracked foundation

Enabling hundreds of years of systematic 

Racism 

Oppression

The roots burrowing deep

Deeper than the eyes can see

But it started before

Before the roots grew strong enough to break the concrete

Back when the seeds were sown 

The seeds 

The seeds were planted long ago

Long before prison cells were concrete cages without windows to let in the sun

Before the war on race was meticulously labeled as the war on crime 

The seeds were planted long ago

The seeds 

Millions of ships traveling from one port to another

But the cargo wasn’t apples or oranges or piles upon piles of flour and sugar

The cargo was living and breathing

The seeds

The shackles 

The chains

The dehumanization spread like wildfire

Embedding into the land

Seeping into the minds of the oppressors 

 “Roughly 20 percent of British North America’s 2.5 million residents in 1775 was enslaved”

-American Revolution

The seeds 

Once sown

Tiny tendrils poked through the shells

Multiplied 

Growing with every raindrop drenching the fertile soil 

Contagious like an infectious disease

Consuming  

Roots firmly in the ground

The seeds

So common no longer overlooked

Tiny pinpricks dotting the stolen land 

An insurmountable task pulling out every single weed

But every root

Every tendril

Every seed must be eradicated 

Ripped from the soil 

Leave any trace and they will grow back 

Slavery may have been abolished

But the roots remain

Deeply persevered hidden from eyesight  

Encapsulated in the culture of the land 

The seeds remain

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

-13th Amendment

They still remain even after the concrete was poured over

To pave roads and build cities

Construct homes 

Ignoring the past, the wrongdoings 

But soon enough

The roots 

The roots took hold once more

Tendrils creeping up through the foundation

Threatening 

Weaving purposefully in the cracked concrete

Designed to be impenetrable

An unshakeable force

Strong enough to survive through earthquakes

It was not

“African Americans as a whole now represent the majority of state and federal prisoners, with a total of 803,400 black inmates--118,600 more than the total number of white inmates” 

-Angela Davis

Once again the sprouts emerged, only to be torn out 

But the cracks they formed still remain

Allowing for the next set of noxious weeds to take root

A continuous cycle repeats

Repeats

Repeats

Compounding of years and years of oppression

Each set of sprouts passing on the genetic code for the next set of seeds 

No matter how many sprouts, tendrils, roots are pulled out 

“In 2015, about 55 percent of people imprisoned in federal or state prisons were black or Latino” 

-American History, Race, and Prison

The roots

The roots remain

Instilling dehumanization 

Evolving 

Now by a different name

Criminalization

 “Flooding the streets with police, often in plainclothes, was the presumptive solution to America’s crime ‘crisis’. This policy led to racial criminalization of black youth on the street, often for minor offenses or for nothing at all, and was not effective in combating actual criminal behavior”

-National and Local War on Crime 

The cracks still remain

Still run deep

The ivy impossible to obliterate 

Consuming 

Eating

Breathing

Veins pumping blood 

Mapping the skin in red and blue rivers 

Flowing to the heart

To the brain

Sending oxygen to the disease

The seeds still remain

Now the cracks can no longer be ignored

Concrete so riddled and broken

A house cannot stand on a crumbling foundation

A disease cannot be cured unless it is acknowledged

It will continue to fester under the bandages, the platitudes, the balm 

Sprouts continue to grow unless the roots are exposed

The longer it is overlooked the stronger the roots become

Now

The roots we must expose

We must not wait 

We cannot wait 

The Time is Now

Abolition was then: 1865

Abolition is Now

Works Cited 

1. National and Local War on Crime · Detroit under Fire: Police Violence, Crime Politics, and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Civil Rights Era · Omeka Beta Service, policing.umhistorylabs.lsa.umich.edu/s/detroitunderfire/page/national-and-local-war-on-crime#:~:text=President%20Lyndon%20Johnson%20declared%20a,the%20progress%20of%20the%20nation.

“American History, Race, and Prison.” Vera Institute of Justice, vera.org/reimagining-prison-web-report/american-history-race-and-prison

“American Revolution.” Slavery and Remembrance, slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0064#:~:text=The%20enslaved%20population%20was%20not,lived%20in%20the%20southern%20colonies.

“The Southern ‘Black Codes’ of 1865-66.” Constitutional Rights Foundation, crf-usa.org/brown-v-board-50th-anniversary/southern-black-codes.html.

Thernstrom, Abigail, and Stephan Thernstrom. “Black Progress: How Far We've Come, and How Far We Have to Go.” Brookings, Brookings, 15 Apr. 2022, brookings.edu/articles/black-progress-how-far-weve-come-and-how-far-we-have-to-go/.