Black In America
by Perry Redd
June 1, 2007
Still relevant after all these years
Being Black in America--a feat unbelievable...At best, unreadable--at worst, unachievable
Yet many have sought to study the condition; A most formidable task--a most impossible mission...
To study a condition with such polarized extremes; A condition with no end and such meaningless means...
A state of being with a questionable struggle; With power so evident, a people unlovable...
Faces on a landscape, yet so utterly ignored; Planes in the air, but yet to have soared...
Being Black in America--I am Black in America...fact in America--I am a fact of America
Seen, but not seen--heard, but not heard; Voice of the mouth--language without word...
Eyes without sight--teeth without bite; Rise after a knockout--but gave back the fight...
Destined to be legend--pay ancestors homage; How can any sane man embrace bondage?
Mesopotamian made--Queen of the Nile; Does Black in America--mean being so vile?
Like the ones you hate--who stunted your rise? You curse, lie & cheat, like the ones you despise...
Like your oppresser, you want to ridicule the poor--remember when we said, "Ain't gon' study war no more"?
You--yes, you...yes, point to yourself; All this time, you thought it was somebody else...
You gamble like the devil--coveting other men's things; No trust in God--an all that God brings...
Make no lame excuses for this lapse in your faith; You've done it for years, months, weeks, day-to-day...
Thus, it is no lapse--your actions show true--it is what it is, you do what you do!
Being Black in America, doesn't have to be hard; but you revel in drama, you like being scarred...
Early on, you couldn't control your plight; But now that you're older, you revel in the fight...
Fighting yourself--the ones just like you...the miseducated many--the talented few...
Who squandered their talents--like pearls among swine; Being Black in America means I won't squander mine!
Cover your eyes, stay in your shell--act like no one told you--don't ask, don't tell...
Remain where it's safe (where truly it's hell)...Easy not to do anything: "don't try, don't fail"...
Being Black In America--fact in America...what is it Back in America?
"They don't have no jobs"! What? You don't WANT no job! But what you DO want is somebody to rob!
Idolizing their heroes only brought you grief--'cause they lock up those who immulate a theif...
Fighting racism is like fighting the wind--whenever it happens, you thought you had reached the end
And once I'm beaten, was it worth the hurt? What supposed to be mine, is too much like work...
Where is my dignity? Nowhere to be found; Remeber when we said, "Ain't gon' let nobody turn me around..."
Well, history is useless if you don't know how to use it; and it's even more than worthless if you refuse it!
Being Black in America--Black in America...fact of America
This don't look like justice, how can it be right? When I struggle in the daytime--and struggle at night?
I wanna place the blame as far as I can see--when I got disparate sen-ten-cing on me...
But no one's listenin'--I'll put blame right here--'cause I struggle with me courage, struggle with my fear...
And with those things that I can't control--like, "When it's over, who's gonna own my soul?"
Skin color ain't a curse--it's an actual fact--that pigmentation means I struggle BECAUSE I'm black...
Being Black in America--Back in America...fact of America? I AM America.
Watch CNN's Special Report "Black in America," airing
Wednesday, July 23 and Thursday, July 24, 2008.
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--Perry Redd is a social change activist, songwriter, founder of the worker's rights advocacy, Sincere Seven and cable TV host and producer, curently incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution at Cumberland, Maryland.
