Black America

America is not the melting pot they paint in the history books

But, I don't live in America, I live in Black America

I live where they don't tell you the real truth in schools

Where we are supposed to look up to Columbus & George Washington but not Nelson Mandela or Angela Davis

Where the most important lessons are learned on the streets & common sense always takes a back seat

In Black America I'm white on the inside because I don't speak ebonics

I spend too much time reading and not enough time gangbanging

In Black America, black men account for almost 35% of the prison population but only 4% of the US population

Where everyone wants to free Boosie but no one is shouting Free Troy

We care more about bitches & hos than stocks & bonds.

In Black America we are our own enemies

And if you're light skinned the world is your oyster

But if not then you're ugly and stereotyped

Indian Remy Hair & relaxers are beautiful but the natural curls & fros are unkempt.

Where the only time we step in a voting booth is when the candidate is Black

I live where a black man marries a white woman twice as often as a black woman

Where little black girls are ashamed to be themselves because the media has deemed her "Too Dark"

Where I don't fit in because my shirt isn't 3 times my size and my pants don't hang off my ass

Where we only make up almost 14% of the US population but make up 50% of the HIV population

Where Black on Black crime is accounting for a majority of Murder victims in the US.

72% of single & unwed mothers are Black & over 40% of black teenagers will drop out of high school.

No child left behind is a lie in Black America.

We've been taught that the barrel of a gun speaks louder than words.

I'm seen as a statistic rather than a human being.

Every time a black person picks up a crack pipe or cocks a gun to pop shots into someone who disrespected him or gets jumped into a gang we hold ourselves back.

I've been programmed to be scared of the police, even if I've done nothing wrong because the police beat down men who are already handcuffed and say they were resisting.

The innocent are being killed as the guilty watch with relief.

Almost 25% of Blacks are living in poverty. We think if it didn't happen in our neighborhood or to those closest to us then it doesn't affect us.

We have a strict "snitches get stitches" policy

In Black America it's way better to be seen and not heard.

It's where we know all the Basketball Wives names but are blind to Madame CJ Walker & Shirley Chisolm.

We run around saying "my president is black" but we don't know who the any members of his cabinet are.

I thought we had evolved from the days of Black & White.

But no matter how far I've come I'm still just a poor, black kid from a bad neighborhood.

I thought I was supposed to be judged based on character.

I thought Black America would be a great place to live by now.

I didn't know Black America would be the charred bottom of the Melting Pot that is supposed to be America.

But, I live in Black America in hopes that we can grow past the ignorance & the stereotypes.

I can't turn my back on the America that raised me.

So I will always use my Freedom of Speech wisely

Because one day my kids will live in Black America

And hopefully the statistics will have lowered

& the masses will open their eyes and see what's really going on.

I would say White America is just as hard to live in but, hey, I wouldn't know.

And numbers don't lie.

Lost

Where am I going?

I forgot life comes with no compass

Just when I think I've found my way

The rough winds of tribulations blow me astray

I try my best to keep due north on the path to happiness

But the troubling rain makes me lose the star

The sun shines for but few moments

I try to hold onto the sunlight as long as I can

But, the harsh rain always comes back

When will I be able to bask in the sunlight

Just long enough to know that I'm going the right way

Because then rain or shine I'll always know

Always know where I'm going

Never lost again

Love & Happiness

Love

It's a lie & yet the truest thing I've ever known.

It brings you up just to beat you down.

Love is what the poets write about & the singers sing about.

It's what makes the artists kill themselves & the broken live again.

Love is what makes you wake up in the morning but what makes you want to sleep for days without it.

Love is what makes you want to put up walls just so someone will break them down.

Love makes everything clearer but makes everything harder to see through the haze.

Love makes you rush into things that you probably wouldn't have pursued otherwise.

So, love makes you do the things you'd be too scared to do.

Love knows that what you need & what you want sometimes coincide.

Love can make you feel pathetic and dependent but make you feel like you're not really alone.

Like, you can fly. Like you're a hero to someone, somewhere.

Like, you can do anything.

Love is a drug and I'm scared to become an addict.

Because then what would I do without it?

Happiness

it's what had eluded me for years. It's a baby's smile.

It's the dream of mankind.

It's the vibrant pastel colors on the canvas.

It's what I've found in myself, after years of searching.

Happiness makes me want to cling to it for dear life.

Happiness makes me feel like a kid again.

But makes me feel like an old man who's lived a happy life on his deathbed with no regrets.

Happiness, happiness, it rolls off my tongue like a word I just learned and must commit to memory.

Happiness is like a friend I just met & can't get enough of.

Love & happiness are contradictions of epic proportions.

Mary Jane

This was supposed to be a rap but, I just left it as this so...

You got them pretty green eyes
& them pretty green thighs
I get that pretty green high
& touch the pretty green sky
All that glitters aint gold
All that's bought can't be sold
This like is getting pretty cold
So get another blunt rolled
So I can leave this world below
& when I'm comin you can go
You might be mad but I say so
& now more money I will blow
On that girl that keeps me sane
& is always on my brain
My money's goin down the drain
All because of mary jane

Once Upon A...You Know

Once upon a time I believed in fairy tales

A princess was waiting for my kiss

But one day while I sat around

Watching everyone else fall in love

I gave up, I stopped believing

That was the day I knew

There is no true love

There is only years of lies

Told to me at bedtime

Filling my head

Giving false hope

But then you came

& you kissed me

& I changed

I was a prince.

& I thought we'd live happily ever after

But you ended up being a wicked witch

& now that you're gone

I live happily ever after

With the princess you told me would never come.

Dream

I ask her where she's been all my life

She replies, "looking for you"

I blush, I only know because she tells me I am

Our hands intertwine

I use my other hand to brush her hair out of her face

She's gorgeous. I kiss her forehead.

I kiss her cheek.

I kiss her lips.

I look into her eyes.

She sees right through me.

She grins. I smile.

I want to lay here with her forever

I talk, she listens.

My heartbeat syncs with hers.

Damn.

I wake up.

I look over & the other side of the bed is empty.

I sigh.

I lay back down.

& wonder who the girl from the dream is.

Maybe one day I'll know.

America: Extended Version

So, there's always been an extended version, but I thought it was lost forever. but, nope...I found it xD There's only like 15-20 extra lines than the original.


I’m from America …the land of the judgmental and home of the hypocrites
Where they tell you to speak your mind but to stay in your place
To leave your mark but not to stand out…
To make a change but not to challenge anything or anyone
Where they tell you no child is left behind oh, except the 33% who drop out
Or the 20 percent that graduate high school as funtionally illiterate
But not left behind in school, just life, but I guess that doesn’t matter as long as they graduate right?
I am from America …from a place where I’m just another statistic
Just one of the lucky 75% of teen girls without an STD
America , where I’m just another sad stereotype of urban youth
Where I’m more likely to pick up a gun than read a book
America , a place where it’s OK to just be yourself, but, only if yourself is like everyone else
Where change is just anarchy and rules are like laws, where conformity is an epidemic for which there is no cure
America , a place where you can marry the person you love…as long as you’re not the same sex
Where Mathew Shepard got what was coming to him and Rodney King got his, too
America , where nothing is, as it seems so you always have to read the fine print, where even if you win, you always lose something
Where if you just replace an “er” with an “a” a word can magically hold no history
Where for every step you take somebody pulls you 2 steps back.
America, where dignity doesn’t matter as long as you get what you want, and where honesty is just how well you can lie…
Where people don’t get that the definition of racism isn’t just Whites against Blacks, where everybody thinks somebody’s out to get them when we’re really just out to get ourselves
Where celebrities don’t have to achieve anything, just inherit it and they’re role models
Where 2 bombs make a right…
Where he said, she said goes farther than you’d think and where rumors can ruin you
America, where 4,599 people ages 10-24 ended their own lives, and 42 million babies got theirs ended by a right…to choose. More like the right to lose.
America, where hate is taught in your own backyard, where 3 nooses hang to prove we haven’t come very far.
Where Bratz dolls are what every little girl wants to look like and where Ken and Barbie are everybody’s perfect couple…
Where you can have a dream but only if you’re willing to die for it, where the past never dies, it just hides very well.
Where two million cocaine addicts can’t commit to12 steps and where 906,000 kids get hit and claim they ran into a door.
America, where Big Brother keeps an eye on you, but only if you’re doing something wrong.
America, where 2,070 animals were abused in 2006 alone, where for some people eating meat is wrong but that cute leather coat somehow isn’t…
Where 200 million people have MySpace and 53% of missing people were juveniles but one has nothing to do with the other, or so it seems.
Where children know how to use a computer before they know how to tie their shoes, where it’s easy for grown men to have the email address “sweetbabygirl97”.
Where 4 million wives and girlfriends get smacked around for “stepping out of line”.
Where looks and charm outweigh intelligence and capability, and where your kid is spewing curses before their ABCs.
America , where nannies raise children and children love nannies and sometimes-even daddies love nannies, which is probably why for every 1,000 people, married, 360 divorce.
Where crosses are just fashion and Kabbalah bracelets are just cute
Where the Great Depression couldn’t be fixed with just a bottle of Zoloft.
America , where Nixon wasn’t a crook and where Clinton did not have sexual relations with that woman.
Where 3 out of 4 little girls beg not to be touched anymore but their screams aren’t heard
Where over 1 million pre-k kids are on antidepressants, where the kids are more stressed out than their parents, where mommy drinks because she just can’t cope and where little Billy is the only 10 year old in rehab.
Where 1 in every 6 women will be raped, but she must’ve been asking for it right? Because only 6% of rapists every spend time behind bars.
But, yeah...this is the land of the free we're talking about...
Where 40 million are obese and 8 million are anorexic and magazines promote the perfect ammunition for low self esteem.
Where it doesn’t matter what you see in the mirror as long as you listen to what everybody says about you and where sticks and stones can break your bones but words can break your spirit…
Where for 38 years at least one girl dies per year from sorority hazing, 38 girls that just wanted to fit in
America , where your tax dollars pay for high-class hookers, no excuse me, escorts.
Where 41 shots rang out over a wallet and where the grass is always greener when you’re standing in a field of weeds…
Where sheep can be cloned but AIDS can’t be cured.
Where everybody hates on the president but I bet they couldn’t do his job and where everybody loves Raymond, but don’t know who the 16th president is.
America , where we’re all still slaves, slaves to ourselves, slaves to fashion, slaves to money, slaves to power…you get the picture.
America , where everybody wants to party like a rock star but none of them can name the members of the Republican Party
Where when it comes to politics common sense doesn’t matter as long as you have a Yale degree
America , where 107,000 of our future are in juvenile detention centers, how many of them are crying out for help and being ignored?
Where 4/20 is a holiday but 12/6 is not, wondering what that is? The day the 13 Amendment abolished slavery…mark that down.
Where 2,258,983 prisoners rot in jail and OJ is set free saying “I didn’t do it, but if I did
America , where Hoover promised “a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage” but
Where 3.5 million people don’t even have a home ‘cause everybody knows, love don’t pay the rent and money can buy love
America the beautiful, with its smog filled skies and barren waves of grain
Where 37.5 million immigrants came to be free, because everybody’s looking for the american dream and where in 2002 151 immigrants died trying…
Where the American dream has become a nightmare, where white picket fences have been replaced with picket signs
Where in the real world life doesn’t end with a happily ever after
America , where some people spend their whole lives trying to get to…and why? Because it’s America , who wouldn’t want to live here?