The Wanting

So many people want to be black but

Don't want to know what it feels like

[1]

So many people want to be black but

Don't  want to know what it feels like

So many people want to be black but

Don't  want to know how bad it feels sometimes

They don't want to know how it feels

To never be burned by the sun

But instead constantly being singed

By the looks and stares of others

That leave burn marks like fresh cigarettes on skin

They don't want to know how it feels to be

Public Enemy number 1,2,3,4,5 and 6

All because of something that you have no control over

So many people  want to be black

But they don't want to carry the responsibilities

That being Black puts on your back

It seems that they just want to be black when it suits them

Then when trouble comes they slowly slink out of

The skin that they so glorified

Because they know that skin brings trouble

See they don't know how it feels to be in this skin 24/7

Never being able to take it off when it suits me

Unable to shrug off the centuries scars from the whips and chains

That have now been reinvented into whips and chains

They all want to be black

But don't want to know the feeling

Of staring at a place on the map

And recognizing it as the place people always

Tell you to go back to

But never recognizing it as home

They don't want to know the feeling that

The only time they'll ever be in the right place at the right time

Is when they're in their casket

So many people want to be black but

They don't want to know the feeling of

The pyramids being built on your back

But having the nose blown off the Sphinx

So no one would ever remember that she looked like you

They don't want to know how it feels to have built America

And then constantly being denied access

No no no no no

They want no part of that part of being black

They just want the big lips, big butt, nice skin, thick hips,

 And the ability to say the word , Nigga

They don't want to know how it feels

To hang from a tree by a rope

That rope slowly suffocating you

And squeezing the life out of your body

As it slowly but surely kills you

They want no part of that

They want no part of the lynchings,the muggings, the beatings, the assassinations, or the bombings

They don't want to feel the pain or the loss

They don't want know how it feels to be hated for existing

They don't want to know how it feels to be hunted

So many people want to be black

But they don't want to know how it feels

Little do they know that it's that

Pain, the heartbreak, the loss, that oppression

That has made being black

Something that's worth wanting