Teachers

Those who are supposed to educate us, and brighten our futures

Teachers

Those who are supposed to help us, show us the people we should be

Lead by example, Because we learn by what we see

So then teachers...

What are you teaching

When you profile me?

When you assume that because i'm black and you cant pronounce my first name that I'M the dumb one?

When you ignore me?

When I'm one of four black kids in your honors class and you don't ask us questions

Because you assume we don't know

But if you think i'm not paying attention, Oh here we go!

When you see the scratch on my arm I got from my dog and ask me

"Is everything okay at home?"

Oooh, that's right! You're supposed to care.

I'm supposed to think if I need to talk, You're there

But when I raise my hand from the seat in the back where you put me

Your eyes move past me like I'M not there

But during sex ed, when we talk about STDs,

You make sure you look dead at me

Because I'm a statistic waiting to happen

Beacuse the young men I will attract will only be interested in in rapping and trapping and...

See, you're surprised when i put Gs on the ends where they go

Because according to what you THINK you know, 

I don't speak English, 

I speak Ebonics

A language created in the Ghetto

By the Ignorant

The Illiterate

Those who's ancestor couldn't be taught to read

The ones who were taken from the mother land and forced to speak this alien tongue

The one's who never learned that G says "guh"

See, we pass on the knowledge that was passed unto us

And I'm not saying we can't learn,

I'm asking you to teach us 

ALL of us

Not just the ones who look like you

I'm asking you NOT to generlize us

NOT to assume

Don't assume that if I'm in the 9th grade with an essay on a 12th grade level that I cheated

Don't glance down and think "Impossible"

NO

I want you to read it

Because those words are 100 percent mine

Just like the words on this page, My frustration bled out line by line

Don't assume that I'm from the "Ghetto" or that I'm "Economically Challenged"

Even though you know what?

It's true

I've done homework by the light of the street lamps at night.

But I bet you I got every question right

I've washed up in the cold of an 88 cent gallon  of water from walmart

Because that bill, we just couldn't pay

But I gaurantee you I was fresh and clean that day

I have lain in bed under 2 blankets, 3 pairs of pajamas, socks and gloves because we didn't have any heat

And in your class, I was wide awake

Even if the night before I was so cold I couldn't sleep

Yes, I've missed school because there was no gas in the tank

But you know what?

It didn't hurt me

Just check my class rank

And it's true, I've been homeless, driving twenty miles to get to school in the morning

But guess what

I'M HERE

You lost the right to judge me the second you decided you could

When you heard the little white boys ask me how to spell Bonquiqui and you didn't speak up when you should

When you thought you could decide who can't learn and who can,

When you decided to perpetuate the image of the "Black" and the "White" man

We are ALL students

You can't pick the class but you can control who the knowledge will reach

So Stop Profiling

Stop Ignoring

Stop Assuming

And TEACH