"I freed thousands of slaves.
I could have freed thousands more
if they had known they were slaves." -Harriet Tubman
It’s 2010 and we’re still slaves. Yeah, we’re still slaves. The whips are a bit different, but we still jump at the sight of them. We still run in gangs held together by chains. We’re still wrapped up in picking cotton under white folks names. Still slaves. They say we’re free- but we still choose the plantation. Still choose the comfort of darkness because we’re ignorant of the light. Still pick tobacco like there’s no other option. Worshipping spirits like we aren’t the closest things to God. We defile our own temples. We’re still slaves. Still coonin’ and shuckin’ and jiving’ and tommin’ every opportunity we get. Still bought and sold, still lynched. Still think white is always right, so you make her mother earth. Still dancing to make it rain and killing kids because we can’t protect them from “massuh”. Still running in circles because we can’t see a way out. We wait to be fed from the scraps of their tables. Are we slaves? We’re afraid to show our strength, our intelligence. When we do show it we use it to further THEIR cause. We live like paupers so they can live like kings. We wait for some proclamation of our emancipation when God said we can just claim it. Instead, we claim whips and chains and a chance to move in the big house. We are some different kinds of slave.
No comments:
Post a Comment