Freakonomics


This business of documenting injustice

is a game of numbers.

A false binary of 1s and Zeros

rather than a quantum of personhood.


People who count

and people who don’t,

like votes.


This business of documenting injustice

is an equation stripped of its stripes.

Demoted from equal to minus

like a repeating decimal…


An irrational number

where a small fraction of people

own a large fraction of wealth.


A repeating decimation…


An irrational number

where a small faction of people

own our fracture of wealth.


A “1”

over everything else,

over 100,

over every one

left.


This business of documenting injustice

Is a zero sum game.

None for some,

"Sir Plus" for others.


It's show all your work

but no paper.

And after you show all your work,

no remainders.


It's all ten fingers and toes

of low birth weight babies.


It's dysthymic disproportions

of disciplinary actions and warnings

that unfortunately causes

boys of color to normally

come up more than

a few credits short of graduation.


And of course the TVs report it,

primetime for prime numbers and our reward is

a head shot.


The only time we get to “enjoy" majority representation


of epidemic proportions.

Minus the job interviews that never call us.

The calculated risk the banks say they can't afford us.

Never mind the home owner's associations that don't want us.

Subtract the shadow of a doubt that the judge never afforded us.


As undivided as an all white jury

and sentences that always come in pairs

but never in peers.


This business of undocumented injustice

is a word problem.


It is 18 to 1

The difference between being caught with Rockerfeller

or crack rock.

It's the number of brown ballots

systematically subtracted from the box.

It's the country divided by the plus signs

burning on the White House lawn.

It's the people America won't even let add up to 3/5 of a vote

because of which border they crossed.


It's the exponential threat of violence.

It's the social determinants of super sizing

It’s the only reason we still haven’t gone on a deficit model diet.

It ain't the cost of living,

it's the price of surviving.

It's the inflation of blood pressure.

It's the debt of dying.


It's far greater than life expectancy,

less the life we've come to expect.


This business of documenting injustice

is impossible to quantitatively quabble with


Like the number of Black people

not at your work.


Like the number of Brown people

not in your church.


Like the number of Red people

not in your police squadron.


Like the number of Asian Americans

not in your Congress


The numbers are non cents

if the GDP goes up, every time

someone the color of my son

ends up in a coffin.


But perhaps,

I’m just a simple man

who doesn’t understand these freakonomics,

And why we’ve never done a fiscal impact analysis

on what happens if we keep our promises.


What justice would profit us…


because no value can be placed

on what does not exist.

so when they say we don't count...

it's just business.


(c) Hakim Bellamy February 2nd, 2015