Has love been rendered invalid between the black male and the black female
Or has it disappeared and in its place enemies
No longer friends
And distorted images that depict the destruction of brothers and sisters
working and loving as a family as we once wanted to be.
That notion has disintegrated into mockery and hypocrisy on late-night TV
It is the influence of the slave master who has orchestrated his charge
To allow us to self-destruct at-large
We demonstrate contempt for one another
And watch in utter awe
Hollywood’s annihilation of the black family
Along with athlete’s and rappers who abuse
their celebrity.
It is the greed, not the degree that negates
family values and morality.
It’s the fact that we are unaware of that E. Franklin Frazier authored Black Bourgeoisie
Or what Frantz Fanon wanted us to become or to be
It’s the fact that we haven’t read the Miseducation of the Negro by Dr. Carter G. Woodson
Certainly not in its entirety
So we mistreat each other during this period of adversity
It’s the fact that we call our sisters, mothers and aunts whores
And stand aside to watch their suffering every day
The mental slavery that has left us destitute
Also erases the fact that brothers should loves sisters
And treat her with grace
We eschew a fixation for motherhood and liken it
to a queenly state
But now the African American shero
Gives her dignity away
For paychecks and designer bags
Much like being removed from the motherland
We’ve traded our souls and forgotten the process of
Respectfully asking a woman for her hand
So here we are in this demise
Attempting to cloak our hatred in disguise
The destruction of the family can be reversed
But we would have to make changes first
And check our greed for how many lovers
We want in a day
It is the bastion of love that eludes us
In such a peculiar way
We don’t love in truth and we have found the lie
Is more appealing to the eye
Even the awards we receive for portraying
Jig-a-boos and tricks on a show
We perform for a statue, a mound of gold
And depict our race in a despicable way
And even though you don’t see others do the same
You shield your eyes and ignore the pain
The pain of HIV running rampant in our communities
The pain of pimps making our sisters beg and whore
Fathers father fatherless children each and every day
And rather than demand no more
We get angry with Cosby who denounces acting this way
Don’t you remember that Tupac was once a lost soul
But he gave us the weather report on what we should extol
The fact that life was hard and it was part of what we do to ourselves each day
But loving a black woman and loving our mothers should be in style every day
Mother’s Day passed and so we won’t revisit that sentiment until next year
But if you have a daughter call her “baby,” “love” and “my dear” to keep her near
To protect her from the young boys who will arrive and attempt to apply
The game they have been sold
So let each and every day they listen to that rhetoric from the speaker too close to their ear
To tell themselves how they’re right to hold a Glock and shoot a brother without fear
And he’ll hear the gun crack and cry
As will the mother and the baby they leave behind
But some woman will still say, “I love him — he’s my son.”
The system does not encourage us to love one another
And we are too easily tricked each day
So brothers and sisters be aware of the scam
That insults your woman and says you’re less than a man
They really don’t want us to care for each other
Afraid that we’ll go strong and teach our families
To stay close and true
In order to grow and get Ph.D.s in technology
And then we’ll know what to do
So rise, rise, rise each day and claim your prize
And when you can’t be there, do not despair
Just give all that you can
And be sure to remember the Golden Rule
Love mother, children and all mankind
And take the time to know that a sister is waiting to be loved true
So each day the confusion continues to get louder
Do the best you can to be that woman or that man
So many heroes and so many sheroes
Brothers need sisters and sisters need brothers
And above all, love each other equally
Peace.
