I WANNA SEE WHITE MOTHERS ON TV CRYIN', STANDIN' NEXT TO AL SHARPTON TALKIN' ABOUT "WE NEED JUSTICE FOR CHAD. WE NEED JUSTICE FOR CHAD. HE WAS JUST COMING HOME FROM RACQUETBALL PRACTICE" —CHRIS ROCK

When watching the video of that 12-year old walking
like the child he was, time elapsing in the corner
of the screen, the boy's IMAGE ITSELF IS THE SYSTEM
OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ITS ELEMENTS—those monitoring
the footage, those responsible for the existence of the footage,
& the actors in the footage. If only technology were such
that instead of recording the young boy, the camera had
warned him to stay home. If the camera's field of vision,
when the child stepped foot outside his home, body angling
toward Cudell Recreation Center, had far exceeded
that presented in the recording, might he be alive? So many noes
are requisite for Black life. Still the camera should have said—

Niki Herd is the author of The Language of Shedding Skin and co-editor of Laura Hershey: On the Life & Work of an American Master. Her chapbook, _____ , don’t you weep is forthcoming from Sting & Honey Press. Herd's poetry, essays, and criticism appear in or are forthcoming from the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature, New England Review, Copper Nickel, Academy of American Poets (Poem-a-Day), and Salon, among others. Her work has been supported by Ucross, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Newberry Library, and Cave Canem. She teaches at Washington University in St. Louis.