400 YEARS

4 00 years and achievement in America has always been hard to perceive.....
Hurry, throw out that book Massa say we can’t read!!
We've been beat down, stepped on....buried real low...
But like seeds scattered about...we still grow. 
In spite of slavery or Jim Crow we excel and we thrive. 
We’re knocked down, gunned down and still we survive.
We make jobs and businesses, and opportunity from thin air. 
Even when some folks say...They gotta be ghetto...look at the name that they bear!
Whether it's Kiana, Shawanna, or Kim....whatever you want to believe. 
A name doesn't define us....or the greatness we can achieve.  
400 years America ..... and this is supposed to be the land of the free? 
But that flag...that flag you insist I stand for....it don't represent me. 
Oh, it doesn't mean I don't love my country....But I still take a knee...
Because we've toiled for America....and America don't love me. 
400 years America..... and y’all are still color shaming us.
400 years and we have yet to earn our spot on the bus.
Do we intimidate you? Is that fear you feel? What is it about me that makes your hatred spill?
Your fear is killing us....putting black bodies in the ground...
Think I'm lying....ask Trayvon Martin, Oscar grant , or Michael Brown. 
Oh wait, you can't because they're gone because their skin color brought fear. 
Stop! Listen! Pause! What is that you hear?
It's my ancestors, my legacies, my family and my friends. 
Waiting, begging, pleading, for the genocide to end. 
400 years America and y’all are trying to build a wall to keep the “terrorists” out there..
When in reality some of the worst terrorists are right here with light skin and blonde hair.
You get injections to look like us, appropriate our music, think you're not racist because you liked Black panther
But when my people ask why can’t we get justice, y’all can’t seem to answer
We’re tired of “the I didn’t realize that was racist” remarks that you do—-yeah, Gucci, Burberry, I’m talking about you.
We’re tired of one black dude representing a whole race, the disgust is in your tone
But when a white man slaughters 58 people in a Las Vegas shooting, oh he was acting alone.
We're tired of your racism....tired of your blackface....tired of the privilege that you wear. 
We're. Just. Tired....of how little you seem to care.  
So MASSA, I mean AMERICA....it's time for a change. 

But here's the thing, even if you don't change....Me and my people, We’re pioneers. 
We rise up....in the midst of your fear.  
We're gonna keep on keeping on....Every time you try to break us, you only make us strong. 
We are black, and beautiful and We’ve come to represent each and every day. 
So take note America....All this beautiful blackness....it is here to stay.