Heléne wrote this 5 years ago regarding Michael Brown, Colin Kaepernick and others.
The Math of a Flag
Under the flag you salute today,
I was once a fraction.
And the nation is still divided
On whether 50 Stars and 13 Stripes
Represents all 330 million people.
Placement is key in the equation
Hand on heart; patriot
Fist in air; knees on ground, traitor.
We cannot use the flag to add a cause
But they can use it to subtract a life
By impaling us with their “love of the country”
That gives multiple outcomes
From the same equation
Old Glory Red will spill from wounds
As Old Glory Blue cordons off the scene
But our patriotic colors will not be mentioned
On tonight’s news which begins with
“An unarmed black man…”
And this problem is destined to repeat itself
Unless forces multiply and variables change
And there will be no solution
Until all the outcomes are equal
But the math of a flag is so complicated
The calculus of ignorance and the geometry of racism
Silence the statistics of violence
Woven in patterns
Within the tapestry of our history
Each stitch in a neat row
Like those fields of cotton
Picked by fractions
Who dreamed of a better future
Only to be failed by the linear algebra of privilege
That circumvents the curve
Of the arc of justice
-H. Douglas
