Anti-Racism Discourse Over Time

Naming is consistently used by content creators to commemorate and bring awareness to the victims of police brutality and racially motivated hate crimes. With the George Floyd murder in 2020, content creators referred to him by his name explicitly, or indirectly through describing the incident from the narrator’s perspective. In “I am Coated in Melanated Skin” by Randell Adjei, Adjei explains that “George Floyd is one of many who died by an officer of the law / a job meant to serve and protect / Instead, he put a knee to his neck / Without the camera footage / Would you even know it happened.” While in Jewel Massiah’s poem “I Can’t Breathe”, Massiah calls out the issue of racial profiling by criticizing the fact that police officers saw Floyd’s racial identity as a threat (focusing on the belief of him being a criminal), and neglected to regard him with humanity: “I know you’re wondering if this black man has a criminal file / Why you not wondering if this black man has a child / I wonder if an entire household is waiting for him to come home and provide / I wonder if he’s his mother’s only child.”

In “The Black Lives that Don't Matter to Black People”, the creator They/Them also mentions the names of several Black transgender women, asking “why did Dana Martin, Ashanti Carmen, Michelle Washington have to die young? Why did their black lives not matter to you? Why does the makeup I put on my face paint a target for you to want to shoot?” When the victims’ names are referenced, it is not only an effort to uphold their humanity and identity, but also a vivid reminder of how racism continues to devalue and dehumanize the lives of BIPOC communities. This includes folks with intersectional identities who are particularly susceptible to becoming a target of hatred.  

Another type of discourse content that is mentioned over time is the continuity of racism. Emmett Till’s case reveals the history of lynching in United States, as well as the townships and business districts where Black residents resided were often attacked (the Sharpeville and Tulsa Race Massacre). Asian-American creators also referenced the social climate during 19th and 20th century United States, where Chinese immigrants became victims of hate crimes and racial segregation. Yet, with mentions of the Atlanta spa shooting of Asian-Americans and the deliberate destruction of the Emmett Till memorial over the last few decades, the verbal art pieces bring attention to how the discriminatory sentiments and actions have not changed.

Singer H.E.R.’s “I Can’t Breathe” compares the American pride to justifying a genocide, and which romanticizes “the theft and bloodshed that made America the land of the free / To take a Black life land of the free.” Racism has not ceased, but rather took on different forms such as social exclusion and police brutality in the recent years.

With the prevalence of these cases, many artists like H.E.R. fundamentally utilize verbal art as a platform to highlight the reality of systemic racism under the veil of society’s glorified ideals, where BIPOC communities continues to be discriminated against.  

The phrase “I can’t breathe” originated from the case of Eric Garner in 2014, who repeated it eleven times as he was pinned down and suffocated to death by police officers. After the death of George Floyd six years later, the same phrase is especially frequently used by artists to shed light on the issue of police brutality and the dehumanization of Black folks. Vonni (Phenomenal Risen Woman)’s “My Heart Bleeds for George Floyd” describes that “Brother George was murdered in broad daylight in a manner so inhumane / deprived of his basic right to breathe absolutely insane / […] / I can’t breathe was also uttered by Eric Garner in twenty fourteen before his murder by police.”

The piece “They Say” by TikTok user @_nur_al also illustrates how systemic racism manifests as taking away the lives of Black folks: “they have never felt what it is like to gasp for air at the news of the violent loss of their loved ones / They must not know what it is like to have the air ripped from your lungs by the white supremacist.” Both pieces outline the theme of breathing in relation to the loss of life; the police officers’ actions are not simply taking away the victims’ basic right to live in this world, but the forced ceasing of one’s breath fundamentally creates a ripple effect on their family and friends, and the whole community.