Background: Dwayne Morgan wrote this poem in response to the Boxing Day shooting on Yonge Street that claimed the life of 15-year-old Jane Creba. Jane Creba was the first female white victim of Toronto''s gun violence. This tableau presents the names and faces of some of the other victims of a very deadly 2005.
I wonder if
Little X still wishes
That all of his friends
Were White girls;
With blonde hair,
And blue eyes,
So that when they died,
Someone would give a damn,
Because I find myself
Feeling the same way,
And I hope
That I’m not alone.
Somehow, everything can be rationalized away,
As long as it stays over there,
But once it draws near,
We become the enemies in a culture of fear,
Where racism rear’s it’s head;
I wonder where the outcry of anger is
For the young Black men who lie dead.
This is no different
From America ’s war on drugs,
Which wasn’t a war
When the crack and coke stayed in the slums,
But once the thugs
Started to make runs to the burbs,
Once blind eyes,
Had to turn
And face the music.
Today they use it
As a scapegoat;
Trying to ban 50 Cent,
To help stop the violence,
Which makes no sense,
When it’s White kids who line up
To buy his albums and tickets.
It’s like they’re trying to put a sound proof fence
Around the white picket;
They’re in the media,
Pressing the right buttons,
But not dialing the right digits.
Politicians know that Mike Harris
Planted this seed;
Now the Common Sense Revolution
Is running wild in the streets.
The authorities want more police on the beat,
As though that would stop these youth,
At the point that they’ve reached.
They’re fed up,
And there’s no turning back,
When the road ahead looks hopeless,
If you’re young, male, and Black.
What we are seeing today,
Is no different from the frustration and anger
That set France ablaze.
And, I can’t help but think
That maybe X was right.
Maybe this life
Would be less painful
If all of my friends were White;
Maybe then,
Someone other than me
Would give a damn about their lives.
And I mean no disrespect
to the innocent people who have died,
nor to the memory and the life,
of a girl named Jane,
who was slain on Boxing Day.
I pray that her death not be in vain,
Because her being young and White,
Is the closest thing that I have,
To ever seeing change.
Dwayne Morgan is an award-winning spoken word artist based in Toronto. He can be reached at
