The Ghost Of Fred Dube’ — A Pro-Palestine Poem
College students obtain, sustain
Columbia University’s campus.
The time is now for revolutions,
solutions — the non-distribution
or receiving of dollars with blood
on them.
Today, I say a man’s name with
this poem; today, on Columbia
University’s yards, a man who
was scarred, shows up in the
powerful, pressuring storm,
youth-filled swarm, as its former
professor Earnest Fred Dube’.
You cannot kill the truth. You
cannot end a movement. You
can harm, pepper spray, or
threaten students, but the
revolution will be televised!
You can jeopardize student’s
scholarships, you can even
suspend them. Within them
is the spirit of Fred Dube’!
You harassed, then denied,
a Black man tenure who survived
Robben Island in South Africa
when they were fighting apartheid.
He survived imprisonment
only to then commit to the
United States — only then to
face discrimination, extreme
evaluation, hate.
The spirit of Fred Dube’ lives!
His spirit is living in the
encampments, the protests,
the poetry, the chants, the
freedom dances, young people
will do when you force upon
them your vicious, policy driven
voodoo!
These young activists, freedom
fighters, see through you!
What you do? You continue to
take bloody money; you spend
US tax dollars to slaughter; you
falter at the feet of truth because
you will not stop the youth!
You implement reactionary
measures, treating force as
if your “position of power”
is greater than lives — but
thousands upon thousands
continue to die!
You lie!
You create falsehoods of
anti-Semitism!
You continue to treat
Israel as the victim!
To common sense, as well
as history, you will not even
listen!
Fred Dube’s plight is being
acknowledged. His spirit is
at every college who dares
to dream of an Israeli victory.
You will not win.
Your empire will
soon come to an end.
Truth will not break
or bend. War should
not be a trend. Earnest
Fred Dube’s name can be
heard in the winds
where a revolution
begins. Where
revolutions
begin.
Copyright Christopher D. Sims
April 20, 2024
