2022-2023

TO THE NEURO RESEARCHERS AT UCI (2019)

171 lines4 min listen

I always appreciateAn opportunity toProvide clarityTo make moreSense whenThere is noneA completeOpposite (it seems)From UCI Neuroresearch teams

See the only pointAnd reason for thisSong is a Black manNamed Mike BrownWho was murdered byPolice going to theStoreJust like I andToo many Other Black folksFear and dread

But This Mike BrownWas only 18 years OldAnd was shot to deathA baby boy withBaby boy cheeksWho people saidWas real niceAnd real sweetBut didn’t matterTo Ferguson police

These Beverly HillsCop wannabesThese trigger happyCops outside ofGrocery stopsSo this man, nearly a boyWas shot deadAND THEN?

Left dead in the street!Left dead for hours aloneWhere his family could see himBut they were not allowed to reach him!This boy deserved more!And so he sparked aRevolution in his nameNever forget the black manWith baby boy cheeksThe Beloved Mike Brown

The neuroResearchersAt UCIMust have forgotten thisOr not really caredHow the impact of Black DeathBlack traumaBlack painblack griefwould be responded toParticularly by meFaith Cheltenham

Who sat at my desksharing postsand raising funds,who helped see the bussesfill up with people on firefor Black souls the weekwe lost Mike Brown

So If asked to remember in detailAbout Mike Brown?Well that’s like taking meRight backto that pain point here(right in my chest).And that’s the pointOf the researchThese scientists doTo study brains ofPeople like me who say they rememberAll the time(Us Griot holding memory)

Only these researchers can forgetOnly these researchers do forgetSo they built a computer to create questionsAn AI designed to traumatize specificallyOuch I said not so effing politeOops they said,and they saidthey’d stop and fix it

So no one else hopefullyconjures Mike BrownBesides his familyHis peopleHis communityAnd all the realSTL and FergusonLegitimates

So they said they’d stopSo they saidBut Mike Brown is deadThey asked me insteadTo help them chooseBetter questionsBut Mike Brown is deadAnd what will any of their queries doTo change that?

In fact? Aren’t they moreWhite people and light peopleWasting my whole Black time?Shouldn’t I do researchOnly with Black peopleOr other hyperthymsOr more frequentlyEntirely Alone?Why ever would I wishTo go so slowly asthe normal humans do?That’s a death sentenceFor me, and my kind.(Possibly also for you)

Working with researchersWho see memory like a dreamInstead of a functionalSuper highway or galaxyOr enormous swimmable seaIs troubling

Working with researchersWho have no memoryMay be even worse

Which of course is why I amReporting to you allmy own UCI traumaBecause Mike Brown is deadAnd his name shouldOnly be read by lips of his familyNot slipped in like nothingNot to be rememberedOnly as a baby boy under the sheet

I am so done supporting researchThat accidentally supports harmNor research that makes little senseTo the people it impactsAnd the people it is for

Instead I will keep workingOn ways to increase humanCapacity for memoryBy identifyingThat the neuro researchersAt UCI totally and 100% suck

Until I see how they’veUpended their approachAnd used community guidanceAnd spoken with people like meTo change how their research is designed

I’m not a lab ratI’m not the oneto be studied like thatAnd no human is

Mike Brown is deadBut Ferguson still livesAnd St. Louis and allBlack people deserve identifiable supportNot the continued use of Black namesTo scrawl on the marching shoeswhite people used when they was in "lockup"Cause of course ain’t seen none of youmarching for Black lives ever sinceGeorge Floyd.

Performance notedAlly card pulledFaith Cheltenhamgrades you poorlyClass dismissed.