To Be Black in America

 by Eunice Townsend

 

To be black in this country is not an easy endeavor

But if you know your history the strength of our 

Ancestors should lift you up forever

 

If you realize how the pain of picking cotton,

The constant raping,

The indignation of our men,

The white baby at our breasts instead of our own baby

And years of burning and lynching men, women and children

Has failed to discourage us, and we’re still here

 

We’re here in all our beauty

All our imagination

All our intellect

We’re here even in the white house

We even own, own

And we’re still here

 

But slavery is a chameleon, it has changed colors from

That of the cotton field to that of the dank prison cell

Now the slave master wears a blue uniform and tells you to get out of the car

It changed from the long line of the cotton field

To the red line at the city/chase bank where available credit evaporates

So, be on alert, the hanging rope is now unemployment, homelessness,

And drug addition

 

Support one another, love one another, and believe “change can come”

Because being black in America is not an easy endeavor

But we’re still here!!!!!