God Bless America: You Got To Take Your Knee Off My Neck

In the midst of two pandemics during 2020—COVID-19 and social injustice, this poem was inspired by an African-American professor at a historically Black college, specifically during the death of Mr. George Floyd. She wanted to demonstrate not only to her students in a Counseling Diverse Populations class but to the world the historical social unrest in America through the use of poetry. The poem profoundly illustrates the many facets in which America has its knees on the necks of the African-American community causing them to suffocate, being unable to breathe and become productive citizens due to discrimination and racism.