Rise Black Man

By Jon Doe the Unknown

      Some poems aren’t just art, they’re historical mirrors. This one, written and spoken by Jon Doe the Unknown, takes us deep into the systems that have shaped Black struggle from slavery to modern incarceration. He draws the line from 1712 to now, from overseers to correctional officers, from plantation indoctrination to mental chains, and invites us to see the patterns and break them. Listen. Bear witness. And reflect on what’s been hidden in plain sight.

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Listen and bear with me, and bare witness

To this moment in Black history, rise Black man or be another black history

A statistic fruitless to your existence, what get me pissed is

This what Willy Lynch predicted, he was a British

Slaveowner from the West Indies, who used methods

A fear, distrust, and envy. He took over differences, Hence

Used them against us. He used age, size, sex and shade

He put those; young against the old

Not just that, the skinny against the fat

And on top of that, light skin against the Black.

You couldn't see the veil, the females against the males

And this indoctrination, was pass through generations

And this what kept us, perpetually against each other

So he achieved his vision, He preconceived

Was 2012 subtracting 1712,

See this is real because he promised 300 years

If applied correctly, from plantations to correction

Facilities ain't nothing changed from history.

To the present, I'm just saying, from my perception

From house niggas is snitches

I can help you see it C.O.s is overseers

And field niggas today is real niggas

But this the resurrection, to help us out this mental conception

Of confusion from being up rooted and fed illusions

While the Man advance his economic plan

He got us blinded imprisoned to over reactive mind

Now we're reactors to whatever our mind captures

Subliminal message is what bred my criminal ethics

And decision influenced from television

Sex and violence and money for my survival

With these drugs that somehow reaches the hood

That's how you got the have and have not's

Drugs, money and violence a vicious cycle that's more and more

Redundant

Genocide so our genetics can subside

Cuz they fearing this phenomenon that's appearing

Wise men warned that's why us Black men is at war

That ain't physical any more

Fa woman and child. Homosexuality now

Is being promoted and if you ain't noticed

More and more abortion clinics was intended

To stop the one from being rising amongst us

It's in you prophies, them same books you read religiously

See I was taught it's on these pages that we walk

Truest talk this just a lecture from my school of thought.

— Jon Doe the Unknown

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      This poem comes from inside the wall, but it speaks far beyond it. Jon Doe reminds us that indoctrination didn’t end with slavery, and that today’s struggles are born from generations of division, miseducation, and systemic control. This piece is part of our ongoing series amplifying the voices of incarcerated artists.