Monday, February 28, 2011

Sleep N. Eat (An Ode to Coonery)

I'm sitting here watching Bamboozled
Seeing how we have been doodled
Drawn by America, cooned into existence
And even though slavery is over, America was persistent
Wocka, Gucci, Soljah, even Jim
All still have us in bondage and yet all of them
Are on my iPod touch, but their words only touch
The surface of the black experience
And I don't know who gave America the cleariance
I mean clearance to show us at our worst
Or even at our best in a stereotypical church
Still, I must ask why whites define black
We are so much more but never mind that
Because we are The Game and everyone wants to watch
Huxtables are gone. Girlfriends filled that spot
Family doesn't matter anymore but you can meet the Browns
Don't you get it? We, as a people are about to meet the ground
So as my black face sits and watched black faces in black face
I must say that, if we keep going at that pace
In that backward direction, we'll never get ahead
Have some pride. Please use your head
I listen to the coonery. Fine. Ok
But at least I don't believe it. There is no way
We are too smart. We are too strong
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" speaks of our strength of so long
Let's end the minstrel show and start making the news
The right kind. We've long past paid our dues
This land is your land. This land is my land
And I'm going to everything I can
To make sure this school of thought doesn't prevail
I'll be damned if my kids think it's cool to fail
No more black face. We have been bamboozled
We are too beautiful to be drawn and doodled
The nation was born and now it must die
You are a strong black person and so am I
No more StepNFetchIt. No more Mammie
No more Wocka up for hip-hop Grammys
Let's do better. Please. I beseech you
The books are there. Open them up. Let them teach you

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Litera scripta manet. - Unknown

No comments:

Post a Comment