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Black History Month Celebration

That Lucrative Evil

For what evil clips the wings of a caged bird

Then unchain that bird to make it a free slave

This evil is a silence that’s easily heard

Fight another’s battle to avoid your own is not more brave

An angel in light could be the darkest beast

A mirror image of love is nothing but hate

For man to swallow his pride would make for a great feast

But with so much food no man can finish his plate

Cuff the slave in metal chains of gold

Beat your enemy into a friend does not make him kin

This is an evil that can be bought beaten then sold

If the wielder lacks the knowledge, then what use is the pen

In distress, that cornered rat must fight

Even when there is a hero in sight

Poems by A'Sun

Charetta Jones interview

On Wednesday, February 16th I, Zeke Streetman interviewed Charetta Jones in the Hodges Library at the University of Tennessee. Knoxville

What Does Black History Month Feel Like To You?

Right now, Black history is very important, especially with what's going on with Critical Race theory and people being denied access still to this day, from things we should have been free from a long time ago. 


I believe in Doctor King’s Dream. We've met a lot of what he foreshadowed for the future. If he were alive today, he’d be 98. I think he’d be appalled by the racial profiling and the shootings. 

We as a whole, as a nation, need to come together. Our country right now is so divided and torn. It’s almost like we’re walking on eggshells. We don’t know how to react or who to talk to about certain issues that are going on in black culture. We’re not a melting pot, but a tossed salad. We’re not quite mixed– we’re still set in our ways.


It’s always been important for me to learn and have great knowledge. Not only do I study black history the other 11 months of the year, but I also take great pride in my culture and in being a black woman. There are so many things I would have been denied access to in 1953 that I have access to now. I wouldn’t be able to sit in this library.

Do You Have Any Memories That Resonate Unity Above Division?

It’s funny– when George Floyd died– in Knoxville, we all came together. It's weird– I went to one of the marches. It’s odd to see, there were some black people in the crowd, but also a lot of white people.


Young white people were shouting, “no peace, no justice” I was sitting next to a white person, and the people there were coming together. It was beautiful to see that. The young people see it, strive for it, and don’t want it to be as divided. I think our country is still young, and we can learn and overcome the adversities in our pathway.


I’m not going to say that Barack Obama instituted the divide, but his election was historical. Not only the first black man but the first biracial man to become president. I cried. I got down on my knees and asked God to protect this man. Back then, the divide was swept under the rug, and it wasn’t as apparent because we had a black man as president.


When Donald Trump became president in 2017, when he started his first term, I was heartbroken. I remember going to work, and I was mad. I shouldn’t have been, but you look at people differently. 

The fact that people don’t see the divide is really bothersome for the black community. It was like, when Trump was in office, it was okay to talk negatively about people of color, people with handicaps, people that were different from the so-called norm.


It wasn’t okay, and it isn’t okay to talk about somebody different from you because they talk differently than you or because they look different than you. That doesn’t give you the right to talk down to somebody– we’re all God’s creatures, and we all have the same blood in our veins. God created us to be one. That’s how it should be. When I was at the march for George Floyd, it was an epiphany for me.

How Do You Think These Marches Affected The Contemporary Equal Rights Movements?

I’m all for equal rights. I’m not going to talk against you if you’re gay, straight, trans. I’m not going to talk against you if you represent something important to you. 


As far as the Bible goes, I know what the bible says, but I’m not going to talk down to people. We need to come together to fight as one human race, not as gay, lesbian, straight, black, white, Indian, Asian. We need to be as one to make this country thrive and be better.


Right now, we’re in the worst pandemic we’ve ever seen. People don’t want to work because they’re terrified of what this Coronavirus has come about from it. Two years ago, we had a toilet paper shortage, and now, we are currently in a terrible labor shortage. I suspect that by 2029, we’ll be in the next great depression. It’s hard out there, and times are rough.


I was at Family Dollar, and a woman asked me if another cashier was available. She didn’t realize that we were in a labor shortage, and only two people were working. One person was stocking in the back, and I was the cashier.


Many people don’t realize that people don’t want to work. They’re expecting another stimulus check. Biden’s trying as hard as he can to avoid going down that route. It’s not that he doesn’t want to help the people, but to be somebody that can do it, you have to seek the kingdom of God first. To seek the kingdom of heaven, he is wanting us to stop talking about it and be about it.

Trump was all talk, no action. He tried to build the wall. Biden is about doing, and action, and if we became that kind of nation instead of being lazy, arrogant, and entitled, we could be the nation that we strive to be. Right now, we are a super-conglomerate, we’re a superpower. Right now, we’re one of the biggest nations economically, but if we don’t have anything together then it isn’t going to work.


That’s what Biden’s talking about. The GOP doesn’t want that because their taxes are getting raised. They want to keep their taxes for themselves, keep the poor, poor and make the rich get richer.

What Changes Do You Want To See In Appalachia?

When I go to work, ringing people up, I like to see people not judge me for being black. If you go into some of these smaller towns and counties, all they see is the color of my skin, not the person that I am. They don’t see me as smart or college-educated, but as someone who is out to get them in some way. 


I’m the kind of person who thinks we can be better, where we don’t judge based on the color lines. I believe it’s a different world, a completely different world.

Infectious Delusion

Am I not a man and a brother

 For we have been created with the same blood bone and no other 

For our perceptions have created an eternal strife

 We all fear death but do not value life 

Gods given right indeed 

But man's will rules supreme 

Gandhi says an eye for an eye makes the world blind

 But what vision did we have to see beyond the divine

 We shall not judge a book by its cover but who intends to read

 Yet its not man’s claim that is wrong it’s his will to infect the seed

 Bring forth a generation of peace

 Yet that cannot exist with hatred from the deceased

 Condition us to believe what is true But what lies have you told to alter our view  

Making Bank(s)

Download PDF

Malignant Wisdom

In a quest to gain truth, we lose what is true

 Seeking light to be enlightened is a blind man’s view 

A mind hidden in darkness is protected by shade

 A mind stained by light allows the heart to fade 

Men hunt for the fruit of Adam’s demise 

One who aspires for remote wisdom, is one not so wise 

Lacking what is bliss to acquire what is pain Prometheus’ treacherous gift, but man’s ambition is to blame 

For what knowledge must be obtained to make a man whole

 Great acuity lacking glee is a strapping toll

 A sinful trail to heaven only leads to a greater fall to hell

 Lusting for divine insight is a dubious scale

 A benighted man is a man beyond content 

Acquiring wisdom without control is a sin man cannot repent 

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