Another story on the news just broke

A father just died from being choked

Just like an innocent boy with a toy got killed

And a teen with his hands up was shot against his will

And another teen was shot in his family’s neighborhood

Because he was wearing a hood

And armed with skittles

We are in the middle

Of a 100 year long crisis

There have been hundreds of cases like this

We can start to become desensitized

It’s more about race than about lives

A life was taken too soon, that’s the sad fact

And some media outlets try to justify it because that life was black

Do they understand the message that sends to you and me?

When a man can kill an innocent teen and get off Scott-free

Do they understand that we’re not heartbroken because that’s “one point” for the whites?

We’re outraged because black or not, what happened wasn’t right.

These black men were someone’s son, someone’s dad, and someone’s future husband

These black men all had mothers who truly loved them

These black men were killed and reduced to nothing

More than the color of their skin

Tell me when will it end?

When will people get real that you can still be racist even if you have one black friend?

And you might not hate us, you might even like us, but you still subconsciously stereotype us

Don’t tell me race isn’t a factor

Don’t tell me that black lives don’t matter

Black people deserve their own happily ever after

But we’re being killed before we can even make it to the last chapter

It’s petty really

Just because of my melanin you think it’s ok to kill me

An automatic danger cuz I’m browner than you

Isn’t it amazing what fear can do?

It can make a child seem like a threat and

Make black skin look like a weapon

And it results in the lifeless arms that his mother wept in

Who’s he you might ask?

Well that’s a good question

There’s too many to count so I’ve lost track

And before this becomes about white verse black

I want to clarify what is the real issue

The problem is this stuff happens and we point fingers instead of grabbing tissue

I was devastated to watch people on the news claim

That somehow Trayvon Martin was to blame

Or to hear that 911 call

When the lady assured the police that Tamir probably just had a toy is all

That shouldn’t have been Oscar Grants last New Year

These black men should still be here

See there are a whole lot of shades of grey in this black and white

And it feels like such a dark time but don’t lose sight of the light

See we have to remember the march didn’t end with MLK

Just like racism didn’t end on President Obama’s inauguration day

So let’s turn the other cheek but don’t look the other way

Because this problem doesn’t have to be here to stay

Call me crazy, call me naïve

That’s what the hopeless call those who believe

It starts with acknowledging we live in a world with more racism than racists

People won’t declare an outright hatred

But they still see a black person walking down the street

And turn in the other direction

A cop still sees a black man and feels he needs a gun for protection

From big issues to little issues this dilemma is a big deal

And we can only fix it when we choose to get real

Get real about the fact that society tells us curves look best on Iggy and Kim

Essentially implying “We like black features…but we only like it on them”

Get real about the fact that some of the best black rappers have less Grammy’s than Macklemore and Eminem

And we’re supposed to pretend

That it isn’t shady that our recognition is slim

Perhaps Miley Cyrus is unaware that when we put our hands up it’s because there’s a “Problem in the USA”

Where we get locked up in the USA

And have to be careful what we can and can’t say

But society doesn’t want to talk about the parts that aren’t so fancy

Sometimes it feels like they want to get rid of our people but keep our culture

Pick away at our dances, music, and clothes like vultures

And not all, there are some people of other races who genuinely care

And if there were more people like you this problem wouldn’t be here

So I’m thankful for those who see this as an issue we must ALL stop

This violence amongst ourselves and between the cops

We have to stop pretending

Too many precious lives have been ending

Because we won’t come clean

We are all guilty of stereotyping

We have to remember we’re all on the same team

We were all included in Martin Luther King’s dream

So when the news covers a life unfairly taken

I would hope every single person’s heart would break and

We’d unite to tackle injustice

Because hate is not nearly as strong as love is

And pigment never killed anyone, people do

Our ancestors overcame and we will too

This issue isn’t easy and it won’t change over night

But we can continue to come together and fight

Until freedom doesn’t just ring it blasts

And we all can take a deep breath and say “Freedom at last”