Untitled

Popular Forms of Tokenism

Ethnic clashes providing back stage passes to acts of genocide and human rights infractions
Our so called benefactors reluctant to take action
As mothers are kidnapped, raped, and enslaved
Their children are left to face conflict, hunger, and AIDS
You would think their American descendants would eradicate this practice
But most are too busy stuffing money under their mattress
Children come into this world seeing exploitation and corruption as the way
It soon becomes pointless to hope for a better day
The odds have been stacked against us for a long time
We sacrificed for our freedom but we still have to scratch and climb
No rhyme or reason to the method of our destruction
The only thing seeming certain is the fact that it’s coming

As more and more people seem to forget about our motherland
Dropping the African to simply be called American
Disparaging thoughts when it comes to our kinfolk
We’ve grown much too comfortable under our master's yoke
Accepted his system to gain favor under his eyes
Been sold on a dream that is filled with so many lies

What happened to freedom and justice for us all?
It’s hard to imagine freedom when you're standing behind a prison wall
But prison is home to tens of thousands of black males
When will we admit that the prison system has failed?
Or is it that the justice system succeeds
By limiting poor people’s chances to achieve

Now critics say poverty, education, and crime
Are the results of black people not towing the line
I say when will you end all the madness that we see?
Correct the brainwashing and colonial mentality
Stop teaching our history from the Imperial point of view
Stop skipping over facts and just teach the truth
Give back the land and the wealth that was stole
Give back our spirit, our religion, our hope, and soul
I am tired of the double talk and broken promise
I am tired of house niggas like Alan Keyes and Clarence Thomas
Token unrighteous non-representative negroes
Propped up and portrayed to be African American Heroes

Hannibal Ad Portas!

Catalyst

Soldiers in the Garden

Dark clouds hanging over my head like it’s going to rain
I was standing with my head held high before the soldiers came
But now I am reintroduced to solitary confinement because of my solidarity with the resisters
My love for justice, my concern for the state of mind of the African in America
Accused of spreading terror while trying to change conditions that are terrible
This confinement seems unbearable, but I have seen the light
I have glimpsed the future and tasted the fruits of my labor
I was baptized in the blood of beaten bodies,
Immersed in the fire of burning crosses, churches and schools set ablaze by the true nature and hate of my oppressors

And then the soldiers came, to take away my last days
Using words like terrorism and justice when they were producing racism and justification
The last time we crossed paths where was the justice, there was only terror
They waged a war against the “Number 1” threat and didn’t think we would stay together
They didn’t know that some of us would stay until the grave

And so the soldiers came, with handcuffs and hearsay
With DNA tests and bulletproof vest
They want to destroy what I helped nurture through the storm
But this struggle has breathed a life of its own
Others will pick up the blood stained banner long after I am gone
As they toil through mountains of coerced testimony and circumstantial evidence
Trying to find the glass slipper while crafting one to fit
Others will pick up the blood stained banner because they know as I have known
We’ve got to fight or we’ve got to die!

Hannibal Ad Portas!

Catalyst

Comrades & Compañeros

I debate what the meaning of putting this work out in the public is. I began writing this 2 years ago but it was not complete until a week ago. I refused to speak this or propagate this until now. So it is in the spirit of those who came before me and in the name of eternal memory for fallen soldiers that my word is born.

Dust to Dust and ashes to ashes these are the things of our dreams as our life passes
So fast it’s done, gone from all that we are back to where we begun
No circumstantial explanation for the problems that we're facing
No more cover ups and covert operations
Just… the passing of another black man trying to save this world
How many must be crucified?
How many must be ambushed and betrayed?
Before the just cause will not be swayed
Before history is no longer remade in the image of Serapis
No need for over analyzed psycho-analysis
Just… another black man feeling like the weight of the world is on his shoulders
Knowing with the passage of each generation the cycle grows longer
The foolish and overconfident sense of accomplishment grows stronger
Even as the truths becomes clear to see "The war is in your mind" and "Our people still are not free"
But those who fought the fight before us are…. Dust to Dust and Ashes to Ashes

Time passes but things remain the same
I speak of revolution because revolution means change
Change from the choice to merely persist in the status quo
Living with those clinging to a way of life that they don't even know
When all I know is that God is real
That we say what we think but act how we feel
We act in ways we want others to see
We think about things the way we THINK they should be
But reality is only as real as it appears to you and me, and I am not the one to judge

I just know that Dust to Dust and Ashes to Ashes,
Are the final results of all our clashes
All our differences that cause us to fight
As if African people have opposite poles that cannot unite
As if my problems are any greater than the burden you carry
As if our ethnic differences are any thing more than secondary to the fact
That it’s as a race of people that WE are under attack
Look around yourself and you will see the same discrimination fucking with you the way it's fucking with me
The same societal deterioration due to the affects of disease
The same young people dying with guns in their hands
The same children falling through the cracks like grains of sand…
Like… Dust to Dust and Ashes to Ashes

Hannibal Ad Portas!

Catalyst