So it was not fun in the ghetto
when you were tryin to do
something
- Different
But in the projects,
where cockroaches vanish like your opportunities
every time you wake up from a dream
and turn on the
lights
An aspiring young brotha got to get in
fights
Because he reads books which means he’s trying to
‘act
white’
I mean, that shit’ll really f*ck up your
noodle
Cause you already knew you wasn’t getting no
approval
From White
America
But don’t just point the finger at them
– it’s
us
Imprisoning the talented in our very own
communities
By teaching them the language of lowered expectations so
fluently
But what is often accounted for
is that despite an oppressive
unity
A remarkable man can...rise to the
occasion
So they really should have been more prepared for what would later
take place when
My father decided that the only way to get ‘em off his
back
Was to change his instrument from the clarinet
to a 34" aluminium baseball
bat
And compose a symphony of retribution on their face
like he was listenin to his favourite
track!
By Miles Davis.
And although they survived that particular attack
- and he survived living in Hunter’s
Point
The embers on the
joint
That they’d lit in his head continued to
burn
Readily oxygenated at every
turn
By a society who was anxiously hoping
that every black man would
learn
That he could be a successful - - -
Rapper.
As long as he stayed out of the things that really
mattered
Like money and
politics
But now we idolize gangsters and call straight blacks
-
stiffs
So when educated blacks think being real
means dumbing themselves down
- we’ve lost our
grip
‘Cause even as young bloods we’re taught that it’s cool
to claim
crypt
We’ve lost the traction from beneath BOTH our souls (soles) and when you’re on a slope
– you
slip
Like parables of trees in far away forests and no they DON’T make a
sound
This thug induced addiction is multiplicative on many
grounds
Meaning it
compounds
It’s a psychosis that effects black men from urban cities to rural
towns
I mean – am I the only cat that sees this disease spreadin
round?
Symptoms include an overwhelming fascination by young brothas
tryin to "
be down"
And I’m like down? Down with
what?
I’ve got multiple lacerations on my head
from all the glass ceilings I broke on my way
up!
And I reminisce upon the echoes of past judgments I’ve
heard
That attempted to obscure the clarity of my mind’s eye
like bars do jail
birds
Or sideways glances in brick hallways
when I was back in Rhode Island doing my
third...
Year of University that is - Ivy
League.
But despite my attempts to cultivate an authentic
identity
By employing individuality and intellectual
flexibility
I was surrounded by socially constructed definitions of real as rigid as steel girder
beams
As constructive as my grandmother stunting my father’s growth
by trying to protect him from having "
unrealistic dreams"
You see
– it turns out that the arresting of development went much further than just
Tennessee
© Metis, 2006 (all rights reserved)
