Lesson Plan

Today
WeÕre going to examine
A dirty little double edged sword
Called the n word
One side cuts you
The other side cuts me
You see
Nigger with an er
Can get your jaw broken
While nigga with an a
Is a term embraced
By the black slave
Who has been broken in
By the crushing weight
Of unholy bondage
Degradation and torture
Which in Õ05 with a duce zero
Is called terrorism
And is punishable by
The most American of all acts
Patriotic invasion
To seize and capture
Without release date
Or specification of final
Or any destination
Just vague proof
That you are
In fact
Still alive
And living on American soil
Nigger is a word
Used by the white slave owner
To enforce low self-esteem
And self-hatred
In the mind of the
Black slave
Used by every member
Of the slave owning family
The young and the old
It is a word meaning
Creature below my civilized status
Who is too stupid
To rise up
And take over my empire
Built with little more than their
Bare hands and a few simple tools
Ha ha-ha-ha
Ha, ha
Where as nigga
Is what the undereducated
Malnourished, dirty poor
Black slave
Turned nigger into
A word meaning
In this together
You and I
I have to hate you
But I canÕt forget
When we were
Black people
And one day
The struggle for freedom
Bubbled over
And the American Negro
Screamed in the face of racism
Black is Beautiful
And the baby Africa movement
Blossomed
Like a phoenix
Rising from the ashes
Of itÕs former self
And then
White people told
The general population
That the afro
Was a fashion statement
And we liked fashion
Better than persecution
So we made hip-hop
Into rap
Into crap
For others to profit from
As we get the last cut
And pay whateverÕs left on the bill
After weÕve been shown the good life
Go ahead and sell your soul
You wasnÕt using it anyway
The rhythm is gonna get you
Tonight
So we undergrounded the revolution
To keep on track
Rising in the darkness
Waiting in the shadows
Black people in the pale moonlight
Ruff riders calling to the night
Witches brew in massaÕs stew
Gumbo and red wine
Black Americans rule the world
And every country with a radio
Can hear our SOS
Cause we are sinking
Save the Blacks
The niggers are all gone
Where did they go
I donÕt know but
AinÕt nothing but Black Folks
In here now

By Empress Nzingha

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