"What if we didn’t have to be niggas no more?
If we didn’t have to be corner store politicians
Pushin’ five dollar co-pays on prescriptions
Unsupported by medi-cad Would there be better days
If black was looked at with a fascination for aesthetics
Not an infatuation with the erotic
Would a black woman simply be exotic or a goddess?
Would the nonsense of stereotypes still find life In the plights of racist remarks?
I mean, if my skin was just dark And there was no recollection of my heritage
Would I be American then, Without the African prefix?
Would we fit into the strategic stew viewed as the melting pot
If our ability to rise like yeast beneath the heat of scrutiny would cease
And we simply dissolved in the broth
Would the conflicts of street wars be resolved
Or would our hatred cross racial divides, infiltrate tribes
And we’d still practice genocide like we did before we was niggas Would passion still paint its pictures with the fickle fingers of figures we flash like flags
To frame them in the paradox of life intimating art And hang them high in the hallways of our hearts
Would we still wash our wounds in the waters of mediocrity Seeking apologies from a history
That doesn’t care to remember me
Let alone repay the honor it stole
If we didn’t have to be niggas no more
Would we still have the soul
That creates the rhythm to the melody the rest of the world dances to
Like we are the back bone of the beat everyone questions
Yet we ourselves have no one to answer to
Would we still find the beauty in adversity
Before memories deem the past worthy of praise
Would it still be our nature to hustle like slaves
Passing on struggle and strife like birthrights
Would we still illuminate life without light
Like we own the night and found a way to monopolize its mystery? If we didn’t have to be niggas no more
Would we be expected to go to college for academics not athletics And when time came for promotion would we get it Based on ability not appearance?
If we didn’t have to be niggas no more
Could we be fathers not denying our children at birth
And despite how much it hurts to take orders
Could we work something other than a street corner
Could our daughters be more than video vixens
More politicians than entertainers
More teachers and trainers of success
Than professors of prisons preaching pride til death
Could we be faithful; forsaking all others for one woman
To love her with every thread stitched in our existence
Could we be husbands instead of baby daddies
Or wives instead of baby mommas
Living without the drama of court, child support, or welfare
Making our children better prepared for life
Teach'em their rights
Like, if we didn’t have to be niggas no more
Maybe we wouldn’t be left behind in storms for being poor
Nor followed when we stepped into a stores?
Or showered with political promises
Only to be offered the frontlines in wars
I mean honestly doe yall,
Do we really wanna be niggas anymore?"
NOTE: This poem was written by a young man name ShottaMacMane.. His life was taken from him at the age of 24, and I think that this poem maybe something he leaves behind that will always make us remember him.
