I Am Not an American

I am not an American

Nor do I respect the truth

That I’m forced to jump through hoops

To prove my citizenship of a country

I’ve given so much to

I am not an American

And no, that doesn’t mean that I don’t support the troops

Or my young, Black youth

Who look and live just the same as I do

And no, I’m not trying to imply that I’m not willing to die for what I believe in

But I’m trying to find the answer to my question of why liberty does not equate freedom

Searching for reasons to keep believing that things will get better

Hard to seek salvation and just have patience when my own people can’t even stick together

Well I’m tired of waiting!

But what more can we do

When growing up in the hood means having to steal for food

When the good die young means the young die hood

For a street

For a block name

That doesn’t even belong to you

Instead of living to breathe life,

We’re living to survive

Cross our fingers

Pray to God that we’ll make it through the night

With no answers to our questions why,

Feels like we’re living for goodbye

Seems like we’re living just to die

 

I am not an American

I have never hung the American flag

Was never told that the American dream comes with a price tag

Never told that coming in colored means coming in last

Forced to stay down or wear a mask

And live in spite of my peoples’ past

 

I am not an American

I don’t wear white skin or pockets fat

I am young

I am a woman

I am poor

And I am Black

See, my 40 acres and a mule never got shipped to me

And I have to rely on the stories of my elders to learn my true history

Instead of ways to rehabilitate,

You would rather rape, discriminate and imprison me

Refuse to see me as your equal?

Well never bite the hand that feeds you

Your tactics to keep me down are see-through

So you can stop trying to convince me that I need you

To keep me elevated

Truth is to stay rich

You have to keep people like me delegated.

To do this, you keep us separated and hating ourselves

The saddest representation of democracy I’ve ever felt

 

I am not an America

I don’t need your flag or your country to define me

And it’ll take a lot more than your pledge of allegiance to refine me

 

I am NOT!