The Aggravated Mind

March 9th, 5:49 pm

#Smile

People ask me why I'm angry?

they ask me why black people can't just smile?

And I tell them,"We've tried for a while, but every time we get up you shoot us down! You take our crown! Then you cut our hair!"

Delilah, you strip us of our future naked with no security!

Then you are offended and fearful of our fury?

Hell yes! I am angry;

That I must fight twice as hard for half the rights?

Be twice as good for a fraction of a chance?

Be a prodigy for you to see part of me?

Be a jock for you to stop and stare and appreciate or care for my god given gifts?

Stereotypes blind you to the possibilities I contain,
so I must strain to make me worth it.

People ask me, "why I'm angry?"

they ask me "why black people can't just smile?"

And all I say is, "Look around! What have we to smile for?

Our dead in the streets?

Your laughter at our meets?

Your girls dancing in our sheets as an 'experience' or 'experiment'?"

I did not know we were a test subject
That's why one after the other, a generation is wrecked? Torn apart a little more, to see how much pain we'll take before we break and snap?

We are broken.

Broken.

and trying to be whole
Lost, but trying to find a goal.

We had knew found pride in a heritage
But you sunk that like an anchorage.

You mocked our courage and called it disrespect,
You steal our dance, our lifestyle, our music!

But you ask me once more why "we don't smile?"

And I say "Us not we. Ours not yours. You will not steal from us no more. Our joy is ours to control, and we'll express it how we choose. To each their own."

Author's Note

Today, someone told me that racism doesn't exist anymore.
They told me that black people should have no reason to be in the moods and mindsets they are in because everything is alright now(?)
This is where this little mess was triggered.