James Cagney & Chip Thomas

U Have the Right by James Cagney

You have the right to be right. You have the right To Claim, To Rename, To Redefine.

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You have the right To Judge / To Frisk / To Choke. You have the right to remain standing; to remain whole, without being questioned. You have the right to ignore others’ rights. To speak for all victims and tell a room of widowed mothers to shut up.

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You have the right to Not See Color and firebomb diversity out of your field of vision. You have the right To Invade, To Displace, To Demoralize. You have the right to feel easily threatened. You have the right to the right side of history and to enjoy the good weather of a touring oppressor.

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You have the right to trivialize the memorials of our dead while your missing daughters are canonized their schools closed and festooned with roses.

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You have the right to be inconvenienced by protests, by funerals, by the lives you didn’t approve. Yfou have the right to ride to hounds To turn lynching into a fraternal hazing workout To turn lynching into a popup shop or video game app and award souvenirs.

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You have the right to not see the problem / To browse safari thru our communities. To love wild animals while dismissing grown men as savages / as monkeys. You have the right to prefer a comfortable lie over the truth.

 

You have the right to claim genocide as culture; To fellate weapons & sponsor the indignity of war; to see war as a product, to copyright its blood.

 

You have the right to justify torture and take selfies with the dead.

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You have the right to be both the victim and the knife in the dark; To be the dark itself & the light glinting off the blade; to be ubiquitous and unseen.

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You have the right to Ethnically Cleanse Until Culturally Clean & Repeat. You have a right to misunderstand history Just Enough then edit the facts that make you uncomfortable.

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You have the right To Condescend, To Humiliate, To Desecrate; To redefine words used against you and dismiss our testimony; To control our prescriptions while telling us we’re crazy.

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You have the right to riot in the name of football; torch buses and Dumpsters not in your backyard—whether you win or lose; anarchy as good fun! Boys being boys! and all…

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You have the right not to be questioned; to never be held accountable. To in fact do the accounting! To claim what hasn’t been offered.

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You have the right To Shoot & Not to Be Shot. You have the right to demand God act on your order with the Power of Now. You have the right to complain when our prayers get too loud.

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If you ask me to swear on a Bible, I have the right to ask if you’ve read it.

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Anything in your history can but will never be used against you.

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Knowing and understanding that if you cannot remember which of your grandparents were members of the Klan, then your history will be expunged.

 

You have the right to hope your enemies don’t read history. You have the right to have no enemies. You have the right to close your door on their grievances.

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You have the right not to be sorry. You have the right to be armed and assumed innocent. You have the right to protect your best interests. You have the right of way. You have the right to be right.

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​Previously printed in Civil Liberties United: Diverse Voices from the San Francisco Bay Area, Pease Press, 2019.