Make me a Slave
I want to be a slave.
I’ll bear the mark of my master,
I’ll wear the chain,
I’ll cry myself to sleep at night,
I’ll endure the pain,
I want to be a slave.
See back then I could have family, back then there was community
If there was death, it was because there was no cure.
If there was justice, it was because it didn’t exist.
And if I didn’t have a mother or a father, it was because they were Beaten, Sold, or Bartered.
I want to be a slave.
I’ll live in oppression,
I’ll hang from a tree,
Ill drown in flames,
I don’t want to be free.
The 13th amendment was signed, a proud moment in our history
The freedom bell rang from the mountain tops
The now ex-slaves sighed
They never knew the document would begin our misery.
“Our freedom, Our skin, Our families, Our lives!” they cried.
150 years later each is an indirect crime.
No longer whipped and maimed by the white
We struggle for survival, we live in fright
And the terror?
Our sisters, brothers, mother, fathers, friends, and neighbors.
Parents leave their kids by choice,
If I were a slave, it would be because they were bought or killed; no choice
Kids die of gang violence by the hundreds.
If I were a slave they would die of labor and massacres.
People suffer from disease, when there are cures.
If I was a slave, the cures would not exist.
There is justice obtained by application with one question, “what color are you?”
If I were a slave, there would be no justice for me... or anyone like me.
We hate our neighbors and friends for their success.
If I were a slave, we would all be slaves; No progress.
“Let freedom ring,” Shouted Dr. King
“By any means necessary,” Preached Malcolm X
“Deliver us,” cried the Slaves.
We will pay with our skin, our lives, our children, our sweat, and tears!
Take Everything, but Deliver us!
Deliver us!
My ancestors’ part of the pool I want refunded.
This is not what I wanted.
This is not what they paid for.
They deserve so much more.
I don’t want to be free,
I want to be a slave.
Make me a Slave!
What can this freedom mean to me?
You kill each other, you’ll kill me
Make me a Slave so that I’m killed by my master, not my own brother
Make me a slave so that the blood flows down my back by the dagger of masters’ friends, not the hatred in my sister’s heart
Make me a slave so that Ill grow up parentless,
Because my mother was raped by the overseer, and beaten to death,
And because my dad swings from the great oak tree.
Not because neither of them wanted me.
I wanted to be a slave.
Put me in bondage!
Take my “freedom” away
I’ll die of hunger, brutality, torture and pain.
Put me in shackles, hang me by chains,
TAKE MY “FREEDOM” away.
There is no longer a “White devil.” But a black one, more cruel, more evil.
The terror has changed, but its slavery all the same
Make me a slave.
I want to die by the hand of a common enemy.
Not the hand that caresses my cheek softly.
Refund my ancestors portion of the pool,
Put me in shackles.
Beat me with any tool.
Make my master white as snow; make sure his rope supply is never low.
Make me a slave
I’ll wear his mark.
I’ll endure the pain
Make me a slave, and take my choice away.
So that I can say, “It will always be this way.”
Not, “I wonder if a loved one will kill me today.”