Unchain Me Now

December 6, 1865 we were finally free   No more pain, our sufferings done, unchain me now Pause. Fast forward. Play. 1877 Jim Crow tied my hands  “It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other”  The laws that belittle me and my people for 77 years  The laws that enforced the divide between the white and the black They divided us Just like they did in the Berlin conference  When they cut up Africa like pieces in a pie  Instead of the united Africa,  we’re now drawing the colored lines We’re living in the new jim crow era  Where in 1980 jails became my home  Now, There are more black people incarcerated then there were enslaved  Do you hear me? there are more black people incarcerated then there were enslaved We make up 12.3 percent of the U.S. population And yet black people makeup 59 percent of the prison population Were we truly freed? Or are we just captives in our own society? “Land of the free” ? that's just a joke to me  'Cause if it were true, there would be no need to be free  As they lie to my face saying that we are free Understanding history, I know my future may never be  The future is uncertain  Will I live or be left in a void? With no name, no picture, no acknowledgment Just a number Back when I was  worth just a number  Isn’t it all the same? Yesterday he was massa today he’s my warden  Whips and sticks no difference, to them there’s a difference  to me it’s all the same. Pause. Fast Forward. Play. To today where instead of picking cotton  We’re doing penal labor  Just another form of slavery  But no it's not the same, why?  Cause we get paid Yeah we get paid $3.45 a day by the mercenary But the only place I can spend it is at the commissary  Forced labor for low or no wages I gotta term for that it’s called slavery  1 in 9 men will go to prison 1 in 6 latino 1 in 3 black All men are created equal as they say  لا فرق بين عربي ولا  اعجمي ولا ابيض ولا اسود  Our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said no Arab is superior to a non-Arab, nor is a white person superior to a black person, Except by righteousness   Pause. Rewind. Play. they always said they were here to help me Then why do they have all the odds stacked against me ? They told me I would  be nothing  I try to move forward but they keep pushing me back They told me  I'd either end up in prison or like my brothers and sisters six feet under These are the shackles they put on my mind  You're learning birds and bees for me, its yes sir, ID please  Pause. Rewind. Play. 1865 the chains came off  But why does it feel like they’re still on ? Shackles on my hands, shackles on my ankles,  shackles on my mind But I refuse to be chained,   I refuse to be a pawn in their game, 'Cause outside these walls, outside these bars, I have a life to claim. Unchain me now Wade in the water, God's gonna trouble the water Maybe, just maybe WE are that "Trouble in the Water" that Harriet Tubman anticipated. Maybe We Are that positive disruption that troubles the water of a system that needed an awakening.  Maybe in the unity of the Sudanese and the Senegalese  we disrupt the Ease of a corrupt system That nullifies the 13th amendment. Closed mouths never get fed But with you, we  can shout loud enough to wake the dead as long as we fight together as one  Together We shall overcome and together we will Rise UNCHAIN ME. NOW.