MY PEOPLE, PART II

By Brenda’s Child

My people are a remarkable people.

Look back at our history.

See we were enslaved longer than we’ve been free.

Over 300 years we were held captive

for less than 200 we’ve been released from chains…

but still we are not free.

For every step forward, we’re knocked two steps back,

just because our skin is Black.

Instead of the lash from overseer,

we get beat down by officers,

replacing his whip with a nightstick.

And instead of being hung from a tree,

we are dragged from a pick-up truck

driven by racist rednecks.

Instead of legalized segregation in schools,

we get placed early on the wrong track;

they put us in lower level classes and never look back.

And because our Black men are no longer free labor,

you won’t hire them to work for you.

So instead of selling them away from us,

you lock them away from us,

breaking down our relationships to collect calls and love letters.

My people are a remarkable people.

But for every step we take forward,

we knock ourselves two steps back,

we don’t all see the beauty in Black.

We were enslaved for longer than we’ve been free,

and some of us still have that slave mentality.

Instead of house slave against field slave,

We got Uncle Toms against Revolutionaries.

Black on Black crime, babies shooting babies.

Our children are no longer sold from Dad,

They’re abandoned by him.

There was once a time when it was illegal for us to learn to read,

now the only crime is how many of us don’t know how.

Instead of taking care of each other, and having each other’s back,

we think it’s cool to call our brothers the “N” word,

and to sell our sisters crack.

That’s not working for a brighter future,

that’s working for the KKK.

My people. My people.

Yes, we’ve endured slavery,

but that’s not the only part of our history.

We were Pharaohs and Queens before we came to this country,

consumers of a rich land,

more advanced than anyone in technology.

We walked with grace and our heads held high.

My people are a remarkable people…

they just need to realize that.