Understand that when I say I made itUnderstand that when I say I made it

I deserve a round of applause  Directed to be cuffed up after being ejected from my mother's womb Socially dejected, financially unprotected then prematurely injected into our own tombsFather God, have you really resurrected for those who make my people's dreams doomed? For those who whisper racial slurs when we walk into the room? To Whom shall I take my oppressed thoughts, when you've died for the oppressors too? My people systematically destined to failBy the age of three, if they haven't yet dug my hole, they've reserved my cell in jailI'll never see the gates of Yale Cause the only way I'll make it here is if I'm blonde and pale America America will I ever know your dream?Fireworks, white picket fence, hot dogs and ice creamThe possibility to be anything I wanted to beAmerica how can you sell liberty, when still 13% of your people have never even tasted what it's like to be free? We are a people born into fearFrom the sting of our fathers belt to our heartbroken mother's tearsFrom the boys off the block, eying you, gripping the handle of their gearTo the little girls having little girls with a father no where near We are a people never liberated by the Emancipation Proclamation, we are still enslavedNo documentation could ever fix my people's deprivation or reverse those viciously slainNo negotiations can be made to not make my people victims of generational pain No reparations can bandage the lacerations on my ancestors without gravesNo Inauguration of a black president can justify the exploitation of my black body as a way to gain fameNo imitation or simulation of my blackness can comprehend the discrimination I face because of my race and name So when I say I made it, arise and give me a standing ovation It means I've found a way to escape poverty and leave this wretched nationIt means I've crossed the water to the rich land that started creationWhen I say I made It means  I'm free and unafraid and have reached my destination