The death toll keeps on rising.
More bodies in the ground.
It’s nothing that’s surprising.
I mean, can’t you hear the sound
A message stated loud and clear
So no one can deny:
If you’re a black man living here,
We can’t wait ‘til you die.
A message sent through Trayvon Martin.
And also through Mike Brown:
Black men, you all best be departin’
Six feet underground.
The black man is seen as a pest
That must be sprayed with Raid
Of bullets from those who detest
The day their lives were made.
It’s a human rights disaster.
Who will call it by its name?
When young black boys die ever faster
It’s a pogrom all the same.
State-sanctioned death in our own land.
A shame upon the world.
Would you give birth to a black man
If you were a black girl?
I made the choice at age fourteen
To never have a child.
Too many lunatics with guns,
Too many boys gone wild.
Some news came from the Lone Star State
Some madman with a Glock
Killed 22 out of sheer hate.
It left my heart in shock.
I decided then that violence reigned
Across this troubled land
And that it would be just insane
Parenting a young woman or man.
I’ve never changed my mind on this.
And now, twenty-three years later.
There’s far more violence here than bliss.
The threats to life are greater.
It’s the wisest choice I ever made.
I mean, why take the chance
That to rest my child would be laid
Due to weaponry enhanced?
There’d never be any forgiving.
The pain would wound me in the head.
One day a black child living,
The next, a black child dead.
Yes, the bastard in the Lone Star State
Happened not to be a cop.
But imagine a badge with that hate.
It could make a black life stop.
Imagine being a black mother
Hearing that damn news so dreaded
That some armed something-or-other
Has now left your dreams beheaded.
It is something of a surprise
With rampant police racism
That the system isn’t more despised
And that there’s not more black atheism.
Let’s face it—what the hell kind of God
Would sit back and allow all this?
Unless that God was just a fraud.
Unless he did not really exist.
Are black folks still praying to the sky
For help from this earthly hell?
Don’t they understand, it’s all a lie…
And you must get justice for yourself?
Black men and women, reject the lies!
Screw the religious schemes!
Take the justice some want to deny.
Take it by any means.
Fight back against oppression
With your ballot and your voice.
Fight on with ruthless aggression–
It’s a mandate, not a choice.
If you don’t fight back, more lives get shattered.
And this country goes to rot.
They say that #blacklivesmatter.
For now, though, they do not.
