It Must End! (BLACK FEMALE BOYCOTTS AGAINST BLACK MEN IN THE PEN) may trigger Black female anger or empathy. C-Note has tried everything possible to trigger the latter; especially the accompanying artwork that was created specifically to deflate any misinterpretation that the epic poem wasn’t written out of a well-spring of love, for the incarcerated Black male and the free Black woman.
Written in 2015, It Must End! (BLACK FEMALE BOYCOTTS AGAINST BLACK MEN IN THE PEN) was written during the early cultural phenomenon of the Black Lives Matters movement. Here, in this 59 seconds video, Jaubrae Dixon, who was incarcerated with C-Note and released in 2023, eloquently expresses in prose what C-Note does through the poetic device of a long form poem.
It Must End! BLACK FEMALE BOYCOTTS AGAINST BLACK MEN IN THE PEN.
So they dun killed some black boys
that’ll never grow up to be black men.
So you dun had an epiphany
WHERE ARE ALL THE MEN?
Little black boy
killed in the streets
not guilty verdict
a jury did reach
Teary-eyed sista
signed off on Facebook that day
these final words, she had to say
BLACK LIVES MATTER
I know black folks
didn’t think
George Zimmerman
was the final chapter
Cause a young boy in Missouri
got killed
to show you
Black Lives Don’t Matter.
Presidential Election
now these women all in a tuff
Who dey think they is
calling out Hillary Clinton
that ain’t enough.
Bill Clinton’s Crime Bill was passed 22 years ago
So where have you been?
You just now dun figured out
black men
been languishing
in these pens?
I say “It Must End!”
and I swear I mean it too
cause it’s year twenty two
and I still ain’t got no letter from you.
Come on Sistas
y’all out there
loud mouth protesting
But you ain’t talking to me
you talking to them.
When I hear dem women speak
Mr.Charlie,
let my men free
Y’all make good sound bites
in dem public squares
But alone
in my prison cell
your voice is not there.
You can Instagram, Tweet, and Facebook all day
But when it comes to really giving bac
writing a letter
you have nothing to say
You’re speaking to the media
and whoever will listen
about what have you done
wit our men
you know
the ones locked up
in the pen
Now he’s been down thirty
Me
just twenty-two
Now I don’t know
What you got going on
but I never heard from you
When was the last time
you sat down and wrote him a letter?
I know he dun sent you five
and you still ain’t got bac
with some jive.
Where all the Sistas in the V.I.?
Just Snow Bunnies and Latinas
supportin your men
So the question gots to be asked
Where Have Y’all Been?
When I see a Sista
I can’t laugh
I can’t cry
All I can do
is die inside
For twenty long years
I ain’t never been
One of these Sistas
Brotha
Let alone
one of dey Lovers
You ain’t never seen me
up in the V.I.
Wit one of dem Sistas
who be lookn so fly
So you damn right
I’m bitter
Wit a Heart so cold
Colder than Sister Souljah’s
Coldest Winter
Cause where all these Black Women been
Since they dun hauled all us men
to the pen
Ain’t nayer a Sista
ever wrote me a letter
never gave me a chance
if I had words to say
to make her life better
But you won’t put paper to pen
Cause a real friend
you might find in the end
Just a bunch of lonely Black Men
dying for communion
without kin
Kinship
Friendship
Relationship
Companionship
A message to the Black Woman
come heal a Brotha
I know you think
your protesting and marching
is something true
But Black Women
ain’t writing Black Brothas
and that has meaning too
Some Brothas don’t care
you’re just now coming
late to the party
But I do
alone in my room
longing for a Shawty
Cause each year
tops the year before
of prisoner exonerations
Ain’t making excuses for the
guilty
but ain’t all convictions
real you see
25 years to life
for stealing aspirin
for a teething daughter
getting more time
than committing manslaughter
So you’re just now discovering
Black Men are locked
and you wanna protest
Am I supposed to be impressed?
Nah,
I’m depressed
Some men
in the pen
have been driven
to psyche meds
cause Black Women
dun left us for dead
I’ve chosen another route
instead
So let it be said
in the verses
you’ve read
It Must End!
BLACK FEMALE BOYCOTTS
AGAINST BLACK MEN
IN THE PEN
Here is the audio version:
It Must End!: BLACK FEMALE BOYCOTTS AGAINST BLACK MEN IN THE PEN