We are black,

The bridges extended to the other side

And obstacles were placed in our path to go across,

Yet we still made it to the shores and over the borders,

Our shoes approached the welcome mat

And the doors were closed,

Slammed shut,

Yet we have never stopped until we got them opened,

Voices permeated the paint of the inner walls

Speaking of us like we had not arrived,

Their objections clearly heard on our side

When we knocked on the entrance to beckon our blackness,

Again and again our future has been ignored,

Lay not all blame on our former enslavers,

Lay some blame at our feet,

Rise above the existence of mired thoughts,

Your ethnicity won’t change,

Your Ebonics is not deficient,

It’s an extension of our intellect…….

We are black,

Before the beginnings

Our shades depicted God’s artistic hands,

Creation’s masterpiece waved in celebration

The celestial angels rejoiced at seeing the purity of our nakedness,

Then sin stripped every race of all their glory

And brought death and shame,

There’s a truth in the story of Cain and Abel,

Did our offering created hundreds of years of hatred,

The redemptive blood flowed for us too,

We shall not be excluded,

We have a designated seat at the round table!

We are black,

Nappy hair locks, natural beauty,

The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice,

The darker the skin, the more melanin,

Exuding such strength to withstand the brunt of the sun,

We didn’t come from Africa,

We came from the Earth,

Co-inheritors of all its worth,

We are black,

We are brown-skin, light-skin,

Even passed as white-skin from all appearance,

Observe the Jefferson clan

Our various shades of black still causes distasteful shudders,

I care not for some and their negative reactions

Because I am black,

I was born black,

I have lived all my life black,

I am a proud Black,

I am a grateful Black,

I am a beautiful black child,

I am a strong black man,

I am a phenomenal black woman,

We are a chosen nation,

Great and excellent,

Shine the light on us and we’ll absorb it,

There’s no escape of who we are,

We will not hide in the shadows of your denial,

We are black….