Buck
- an offensive term for a black man
- a dollar

This man.
This black man.
A man who once lived freely in Africa was captured and shackled, dragged onto a boat and brought to America (as well as many other countries in the world) against his will.
There he stood on a dock in America, buck naked before a group of people to be sold like livestock. They called him a "buck" because they did not see a human but rather something akin to a pack mule, an animal, a specimen of strength that they would make money from as they benefitted from his labor. His blood, sweat and tears would put bucks (dollars) in their pockets.

When this man, this stolen man fought against his oppression and against white authority on over his life, the phrase "buck" took on an even more offensive connotation, as white masters surprised and filled with indignation over his refusal to submit, allowed their imagination to take over. Suddenly, this man (who was never viewed as human or a man in their eyes) was now also viewed as dumb. It must be his intelligence that is keeping him from submitting to our will, they thought. Yet as his unwillingness persisted they decided this buck needed to be broken and tamed, like a wild animal. In white imagination, their "property" was a threat – a rude, hot-tempered being, prone to violence. He could not be trusted. He was up to no good. Not only did this buck with his tall muscular build and silky chocolate skin refuse to bend to white authority, but in the minds of his masters, he was sexually attracted to white women as his power in the mind of white men, was big and threatening and needed to be overtaken and forcefully restricted – so that they could continue to exploit him for their benefit.

And while that was the beginning of the story for brown men in America – men snatched from their homeland of Africa, the story continues.

The story continues with jail cells filled with men who a not viewed as MEN but rather as prisoners, criminals, violent rude offenders of law. They must be bound and shackled – contained. When let out of their cells, they are the hidden source of labor in this country, making a number of products and in some cases, still picking cotton like their ancestors once did. As for the ones who haven't been captured, these men must war against white imagination – the kind of insidious hallucinations that cause white men to kill a boy they thought once whistled at a white woman (Emmitt Till)

Or was a threat for walking down the street at night wearing a hoodie (Trayvon Martin)
Or was playing with a plastic water gun at the park (Tamir Rice)
Or was simply running and became the subject to their hunt (Ahmaud Arbery).
White imagination fuels the activities of men who wear white hoods and who sometimes hold gavels behind a bench.

These delusions have sparked the creation of stories around defiance that never occurred (Scottsboro boys and the central path five). This perception, this distrust is woven into our lives. Its fruit reveals itself in the stop and frisk law. It blossoms as white women pull their purses closer to their bodies when in the presence of brown skin. This hate, this delusion, this presence is everpresent like a stench in the air that has been around so long that no one smells it anymore.

The Black Buck is not viewed as a man but rather a thing. And when his strength, his compassion, his tolerance, his love and understanding is revealed, that is when he is the most vulnerable in a world that wants to deny that he is HUMAN.

But then again, some might just see a pair of overalls.