The auction blocks no different from the courthouse, can’t you see the parallel, if you can’t sit back and listen cause I’ve got a story to tell
About Afrikans being kidnapped and ripped from the motherland, and brought to amerikkka and turned into a new man
One that when they looked in the mirror they could barely recognize, and those who weren’t like Nat had the fire watered out of their eyes
Each limb tied to four horses to set examples to their women, so that they can instill dependency and fear inside their children
Tied to a tree and whipped for speaking in their native tongue, looking to make them forget the name of their gods, and the places that they came from
Slave masters raping our women trying to divorce’em from their spirit, wanted to feed their children, so they smiled and pretended that they could bare it
Strange fruit to let’em know what would happen if they tried to run away, got down on their knees and prayed to jesus for a better day
No answer so they figured make’em laugh and they could live, 25, 30, 35, 40 future presidents made their bids
Ripped children’s from their mother’s arms without no hesitation, never to be seen again on another crackas plantation
Father paralyzed by fear, mother baptized in pain, respect lost cause the father can’t protect his seed, left the mother with a pain in her heart that would never leave
3/5’s of a human being thought the amerikkkan revolution was their solution, remained cattle and real estate cause they was left out the constitution
Thought that if they fought in their civil war that it would bring about their freedom, and those that held’em as slaves would treat’em as human beings
Then Abraham Lincoln made’em think they were emancipated, not knowing slave code laws would return’em back to the plantation, foolishly thought that voting would bring forth their liberation
Even still they still excelled during the reconstruction era, and their progress made it so that at least they could look at themselves in the mirror
Seen their potential grow so the kkk ushered in jim crow, thought that lynching and segregation would suffocate their flow
While the U.N.I.A. tried to bring pride back into the Black Man, tried to teach the people that they should be proud to be Afrikan, wasn’t their fault that the people was fully invested in being amerikkkan
White folk committing suicide because of their great depression, mad at Black folk cause Black Wall Street got created
Fear of the Black Man and Tulsa, Oklahoma went up in flames, that type of economic solidarity has yet to be seen again
Fought in two more world wars and one that was in Korea, still waiting on a chance to be treated as human beings
And the Nation tried to teach the Black Man and Women that they were gods, and if they looked to one and other all of their problems they could solve
But Martin Luther KING JR. had other dreams, thought we’d gain our freedom through peaceful protesting and integration, while Malcolm saw our downfall in Brown vs. Board of Education
Closed our businesses down just to sit at their bar stools, Black children no longer learning bout self because they sitting up in their schools
Potential stagnated and wasted trying to fit into their dreams, still haven’t realized the amerikkkan dream ain’t hardly what it seems
Necessity for self determination the Black Panther Party came into creation, too much Soul Power so the cointelpro resorted to assassination, using agent provocateurs they murdered Bunchy and Fred Hampton, couldn’t stop Assata as she escaped the modern day plantation
Then they increased our chances of remaining in poverty, flew drugs in just to further destroy our family
Disenfranchised and vulnerable we turned to gang bangin for fraternity, didn’t realize how different colors would decrease our chance for unity
Now comes the 80’s and crack, that took us to a place and we have yet to come back, they tried blame it on gangsta rap, but those that were conscious knew better than that
For those that wasn’t conscious chose Tony Montana to follow, didn’t matter that it ended for him in a pool that was shallow
Trying to become millionaires, we created our own nightmares
Children born addicted to crack, and fathers sent to a place that’ll be decades for they get back
Whole generations of children whose father’s were missing in action, left all alone to try to figure out what’s happening
So we looked to New Jack City, Boyz N Da Hood, Belly, and Menace II Society, Nino Brown, Dough Boy, O-Dog, Tommy Bunz helped us to define our reality
Got dudes rejecting Black Women and embracing homosexuality, moving us further away from being able to tap into our Afrikanity, political consciousness in decline while becoming a real nigga became our number one priority
Never mind that being a real nigga got us committing a slow death, so long as it ain’t our mother we don’t care about taking another’s breath, poppin pills, drinking remy giving out all to a hood until we got nothing left, and a future filled with pain, the grave or in jail we just accept
25, 30, 35, 40 years the judge gives us as we stand there, and the pain from 400 years we can see in our mother’s, auntie’s, and grandmother’s stare
Thought we were free, had no idea that the 14th Amendment would condemn us to slavery, but that is what happens when you surrender your identity, and give over control of your education to your enemy, and haven o idea how the future is affected by history
We repeat the same mistakes without understanding why, and continue to participate in our own genocide, foolishly expecting our children to survive, while in the concrete jungle or in prison they continue to die
The time is now for us to turn a new page, and resurrect the consciousness out of our ancestor’s grave
So our children will not have to tell the story I tell, and from what we do today they can find new parallels.
From Sky:
“I am feeling the fury today, and your strongly written expository essay absolutely expresses that rage, with an integrity and authenticity that is rare and essential. You GET it. You LIVE it. I one hundred percent salute and applaud and appreciate the way you summarized how the current system was created from the bones and sinews of slavery to continue the ongoing oppression. You put it all together in a way that I could not articulate for myself. The existing system grew from a history that can’t be ignored or avoided, and it’s my solemn hope that your ability to put this travesty of injustice into words will be spread across the land. It needs to be published and distributed, read and heard, and most of all, understood. THANK YOU for articulating this harsh and horrid reality with such unparalleled grace, with words that ring direct and true. Thank you.”