by Ryan Gilman

Shit, I don’t even know how to begin, so I’m just gonna set it off…walk with me…

Equality: A noun, the definition is the quality or state of being equal. Equal in which everyone has the same rights, privileges, or status; coming from Webster’s New College Dictionary.

Let me tell y’all about my run in’s with equality

Equality is the corporate head saying “hey…Ryan…we love ya, your our best applicant…your name is Gilman…we were expecting someone a little different…sorry you don’t get the job…Congratulations Johnny!”

Equality is a drunk white frat boy punching me repeatedly and I punch him back once, resulting in an army of police officers from all over the city from land…air…shit the water in order to handcuff and arrest me…afterwards they all sip on Natural Ice Light in the fraternity house, laughing at my ass in the back of the cop car….for I used my only strike and am going to face life in prison with half of my family in cell block D…

Equality is a woman staring at me and clinging onto her purse from the other side of the street in broad daylight.

Equality is Ms. Jackson’s breast exposed to the public and therefore being banned from award ceremonies…while Mr. Timberlake is “justified” and exempt from blame

Equality is already being thought of as guilty in the school paper before the trial…

Equality is almost getting hit by a taxi in order to get picked up by one….

Equality is the Arab stuck in the airport missing their plane as a result of suspicions….Equality is the Negro driven from town, burned and tortured hanging from a fuckin’ tree limb…right now as we speak to one another…broken neck, rope and all…as a sight to see for this “non-slaveholding society”

That shit called equality is dead, it’s been dead

So next time someone is foolish enough to say “yea…here in this country we have equality,” for on day let them step into me, and ask them what the fuck do they see?