1.
When I learnt about slavery my teacher
couldn’t point at Africa without eyes that gave me lashes; why begin our history with the shackle? One time, the teacher, analysing some
dead white man poem said “the mood in this poem is dark, what else can we
associate with dark?” and I didn’t want anyone to say “dirt” when they could
say “the soil that flooded The River Nile”, didn't want to be marked the
complexion of trouble, the companion of devils, not when I could be the ebony
birthmark of written language - the eyeshadow of Egypt, the caviar of
rebellion, the dyed fabric that lorded the black and red gowns of European
royalists.
2.
Police pull me over for being a suspect of my
own shade, ask me why and I'll show you how to look like something to be afraid
of. We’re killed in custody by the descendants of colonialists; it is in
their blood to get away with murder.
3.
I like Jay-Z for capitalizing on the N-word,
gave us the concept of "successful Niggas In European cities". No, I
don’t know who Richard Pryor is or why he never used the word "nigger" again
after visiting Africa, but he was spelling the word, N-I-G-G-E-R, we say N-I-G-G-A, it
is a deliberate trip-wire word in the mouth of white people that love Hip-Hop.
As long as you say it like an American rapper, the word doesn’t make
me think of slavery any more. That whip is stretched too far back in time to slash my
21st Century back, to not say the word is to act like we have not
come far enough to be Presidents or Niggas.
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