B. Shelby

A country remains divided

Will we ever stand united?

Those who have been trained to protect and serve

Are making excuses so their own lives are preserved

A present fear of diversity, of color, and of change

Taking down our brothers and sisters at point blank range

"Officer, I'm not armed, so please don't shoot"

"It's too late, all that melanin put your voice on mute

Aside from that, you kind of look like a bad dude

Your arms are up, yes, but with all this fear that's accrued

I just can't seem to get past the fact that you're black

You're big and you're scary and you'd better stand back

I don't know your story or the person that you are

But with skin that color, I can't imagine you going far

I can't imagine you having children or even being employed

I can't imagine the family's life that I'm about to destroy"

"Well, just let me carefully walk to my car arms held up to the sky—"

"Shots fired! Shots fired! All officers standby!"

... there is a pool of blood now at my feet

And another black man is now off the streets

I confused my taser for a gun cause I was just so afraid

In my defense I was frazzled so it's a fair mistake that I made

No I didn't enjoy doing that, but it had to be done

Could you imagine what would have happened IF he had been armed with a gun?