A BROTHER’S JOURNEY
It happened probably in 1526 when the number of people carried from Africa to America reached approximately 30,000 per year by the 1600s to 85,000 per year a century later. While these dates may be challenged by historian scholars there’s one thing I know for sure, slavery remains in the back or forefront of minds of black men today.
Those who have never been slaves are still enslaved and they will take their bitter hatred and pain to their graves. It doesn’t matter how hard you work or how successful you become there’s this one thing you still regret, this one thing you can’t forget: such as, being treated as less than, while the greatest president of all time stood strong and proud saying, “Yes we can!” Even in the height of your success you won’t put that N word to rest. You say it like it’s Okay, you forget about your brother who was a slave, who was beaten and called that degrading word every day. Our ancestors died hearing them say we beat and buried another N word today. It’s an unbearable pain to think about that word being the last word Emmett Till may have heard. A death so brutal and so senseless that I’m still disturbed.
Which brings us to the 20th century as we live in America and we still aren’t free. Yes, women are progressing as the men on the left are obsessing on how to control the bodies that their ancestors raped, now they’re so concerned about how we choose or choose not to procreate. To add insult to injury, they want to take away our right to vote, our democracy in the land of the free is going up in smoke and you can be as rich as Tyler Perry or Oprah and to the supreme left you’re still nothing less than an N word hanging from a tree, or the countless occurrences of black male deaths already too many in 2023. We are still living in a country built on our backs yet equality we still lack, while dignity and the respect deserving of all of humanity remains undeserving to us from those on the extreme left.
So, what kind of man are you?
Are you living in poverty allowing gentrification to fuel your hatred, yet you remain complacent? Are you working for a corporation making a high paying salary, but you can’t take a vacation because you’re holding down the Fort while the CEO is on his/her yacht and you’re N, rich looking like you have, but generational wealth you have Not, and you can’t or won’t achieve that kind of wealth because you’re deep seeded anger and your failed attempts for success are still shackled to the slave ship that made it’s first sail in 1526?
Do you treat black women like they’re less than?
Do you say black women are all bitter, angry and don’t know how to treat a black man?
Are you envious of black women because many of us can survive without your financial assistance?
Do you think black women look at you like you’re nonexistent?
Are you that man who treats and takes his anger out on black women, beat us like we’re slaves and then tire of hearing us complain while you berate us and degrade us day after day, as we’re hoping and praying that someday you’ll change?
In your defense:
Not all black men have six different children by six different women and don’t take care of any of them.
Not all black men are angry and full of deep-seated hate, many live in a prison they can’t begin to escape, the prison of slavery still prevalent today that’s why I’m so compelled to say: and disrespect women
Not all black men are angry and full of deep-seated hate, many live in a prison they can’t begin to escape, the prison of slavery still prevalent today that’s why I’m so compelled to say:alent today that’s why I’m so compelled to say:
As Black women, we see you, we love you, we need you.
Those of you who cheat, lie and abuse us, we don’t condone, nor do we excuse your anger or your demeaning behavior, but we Never think of you as an N word chained slave swinging like a strange fruit from an old oak plantation tree waiting for you to be buried in an unmarked grave.
We will love you and support you like the beautiful strong Man that GOD intended you to be. When GOD took the rib from Adam and created Eve, it was meant for us as women to support you, love you, to be your partner your best friend for as long as we live.
So set yourself Free, break the chain of bitterness, anger and hatred towards yourself and everyone else. United, we are better than those who bought and sold us, we are stronger and wiser than many who came long before us. Hold your head up high, you are Strong, you were meant to be GREAT, you are Beautiful and Wise, you were born to be Kings, at least in our eyes.
Lyrically Speaking
