I don't know how to start this
But because I’m black
I am looked at as a problem
Long before
I'm looked at as a person
And because I'm black
I am obligated
to call myself an
African
American
even though I was born here
While     white people
Have the freedom to call
Themselves American
and can forget
The euro
Why CANT I be AMERICAN
Yet I'm told to take pride in my culture
That I'm
African
American
But how can I?
I was deprived of a culture
The moment the first slave ship
Set sail
How can I take pride
when the rest of my  race
Is systematically controlled
And given their values that black men can be only men when
they are searching
For themselves between
The legs of a woman
Values are given to them    used to oppress them!
Oppressing them, my race, me
I am oppressed
born to still fight
the same
Battle as my ancestors
because
Whites refuse
to coexist with blacks
I am told ...
That there can be
no light
Without dark that
there's no white
without black
But the way America is
Light shines much brighter than
Darkness
The way America is
White power seems powerful
And black power seems powerless
The way America is
I don't think I want to be
American
But thanks white people for taking
Me from my country so I am
Forced
To identify myself with my
Continent.
Because my skin is too nightly
To be called American leaving me
Feeling like a motherless child
Am I African American, Mommy?
Because saying so is like looking
At pictures of dead relatives or should l say history books?
I walk with
The weight of shackles that once encumbered    my ancestors
And I cry for the same reason
My ancestors once did
Is this my culture?
because I'm black any type of thought
I have is considered activism
And activism is worthy to be shot
So shoot me dead white people.
I am not American and unsure if I'm African So tell race to tell goodbye I said hello
I wish I could be transparent.
But I'm not to whites I am still a n*****. Synonymous to ignorant but how many thoughts does it take to not be called Ignorant?
Until one of those thoughts are smart.
I am oppressed
born to still fight
the same
Battle as my ancestors
Whites refuse to think of blacks
As anything more than n*****s.
From TV to newspapers
I am called a n*****.
Giving the system a new thing
"Stand Your ground"
For the whites
and for the blacks we are grounded under the boot of a cop pressing down on our heads
Yet I would be arrested if I stood my
Ground. Because I am grounded
I am oppressed.
born to still fight
the same
Battle as my ancestors.
I'm a long way from freedom
But I'm damn sure not where I started
I am African American.