We Are Slaves

*

Self-imposed shackles, no longer literal
It might be offensive but I'm just being critical
Of myself, my friends, my family, my church
So if you're sensitive stop reading. Truth hurts
We don't own most of the products we buy
We buy it on the white man's credit from a white guy
Well, a white guy's store, company, or site
And, before you get offended, this isn't a shot at all things white
This is just me telling us to stop and think
Why the hell do you need iPad 2s and minks?
So you can keep up with basketball wives
Who are trying to keep from their own demise?
So you can keep up with 1-hit having rap stars
Who rented each of their videos' fast cars?
We went to college to think and yet, still, we bleat
I should have said "Still We Rise," but still, we sheep,
Are being led to the financial slaughter
Not saving a dime for our sons or our daughters
All this money padding the accounts
Of Phil Knight and Steve Jobs like that counts
Toward our cool points. But damnit, we're fresh
Our ancestors see us and say "Damnit, they're blessed"
But we don't know how to use it so, in all actuality
We're cursed worse than slaves. That's some reality
For our Perception TV loving asses
If we were smart, we would have paid attention in Af-Am studies classes
I can't get mad at the way my people were done
Not if, before his birth, I have already sold my son

*This illustration by Paul Kuczynski inspired this poem

Litera scripta manet. - Unknown