We as a nation are a variety. The People in which you speak, Harvey, come in all colors-light and dark. So watch yourself-I might talk about that on 106 and Park.
Choose Your Words Carefully, Brother, They Tend to Last is a poem by Patrick Leahy about the struggles of black people. It is a shame that Patrick does not do any writing online as he is an amazing writer. Fortunately, he has allowed Fresh Writing to publish a few of his poems which can be found here and here.
Mr. Harvey, my brotha we used to be cool
But then I heard something bad from my homies at school.
Last night on TV, infront of everybody right?
You started frontin, spitting crap about bout dark versus light
So for the first time in my life I'm usin hiphop to speak
Because there be something I gotta say, I’ve been writin all week
Mr. Harvey I don’t understand brotha, we all on the same side.
We all black, all shades, dude make up yo’ mind
And if obama aint black enough to be president
And my friend’s momma can barely get enough money for the rent
Would you tell me Mr. Harvey who’s blacker than him?
I’ll tell one thing, it ain’t Hillary Clinton.
Because she just like Bill Clinton, she as Caucasian as can be.
But don’t bring her in, this is between you and me.
The problem here brotha is we aint united as a people
Black people hating black people, Jesus up on the steeple.
When did this happen? Why did it come to this?
Sure some people are gunna hate me for askin this.
But this is buggin me man, I gotta go back.
Just exactly how could I gain the title of black.
Maybe I’d have to earn it, use the nword and such.
Well I’ll tell you one thing, the nword don’t say much.
Will Smith don’t use the nword, you think that be stopping him from
Dropping another hit, fasta and fasta the hatas do run
You gotta ask yo self man, what would Martin do?
Martin loved people of all skin colors, that means he’d hate you.
I’m black too man, that means I just like yo son.
So what I came out lighter than you, dawg would you cut and run?
Where I come from, black people love black people, that’s just how it be.
Give each otha a nod, smile, walk in the street.
I aint used to all this hate brotha, maybe I’m sensitive
I loved yo show but now I’m not sure if it’s too offensitive.
You used to be my hero, I loved you – man I still do
But now you like cussin’ Kramer, dawg, to hell with you.
Fo’ real tho, I aint neva gunna hate on another brotha again
But if I evas on 106 an park, shoutin out to mah friends.
Imma go say something Mr. Harvey, I aint gunna front
Imma tell em for real, black people can’t pull these types of stunts
Ex-KKK be listening and they’ll use it to divide us
And just like the Berlin Conference ripped apart the africus
They gunna use your words to destroy us American Africans
And uneducated people, they ignorance gunna get us off track again.
As a people we gotta look to the future and get the hell outta the past.
So choose yo words carefully – brother, they tend to last.
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