Guest Poet Coming to the Stage...

Real Talk Vol.3

I was birthed to a generation that has conditioned itself to promote selfishness
A generation that prides itself in screaming "look what i got!" and broadcasting what you dont have
Flossin
And instead of seeing that we all struggle
We steady tossin ourselves to the sharks of vices and big businesses
When what we missin is that our culture, in itself, has become big business
See execs sit at long tables, debating over ways to maximize their profits off of our ignorance
And we let em
We’ve divided ourselves senselessly, a people that once had the
Potential to be the supreme example of unity
Now, black youth grow up with a distorted view of "by any means", coming up with dreams of cars and big necklaces that, to me, resemble slave chains
Something went wrong
Somewhere in between all those old church songs and today's 50 Cent
We lost our common sense on how to maintain
But honestly, who do we blame?
Cause I dont think its just rap music
And hip hop never asked to raise our kids
So maybe we should step up and take responsibility for our own, or we'll keep missin out on what the real problem is
Understand that before all the Don Imuses and Micheal Richardson's, the problem still remained
And if every rapper in the world disappeared today, things would still be the same
But, this game has never really changed
Way back, slave masters use to put us to shame by tearing apart the family
Removing the male and disrupting the mother's sanity by forcing her to breed more workers
With no man in the home, women were left alone with the task of raising boys into men who would one day grow up to be fathers
And today, black fathers are now viewed as an endangered species
Standing as a testament to Willie Lynch's means of destruction
Corruption now sweeps through our neighborhoods
Leaving no trace of name or identity
And it leaves me to question if this is how God meant it to be
Because, how could a people so beautiful and gifted, so easily be lifted out of our natural course
I dont have all the answers, but I do know that, unless we force ourselves to become our own biggest critics, then young black boys and girls will continue to turn up as statistics on the daily news
And we'll continue to be misviewed as a people without hope
...But I'm not having it
Because for every drug advocate, there's a college graduate
And for every pacifist, there's an activist
We just have to decide that we will no longer hide behind the shadows of self-destruction
Because somewhere, there's and 11 year old child who's silently screaming for instruction
His eyes are as big as the Moon
And his imagination has the type of innocense that would move masses
As he sits in his room, he slowly puts on his glasses and his backpack to get ready for school
In his left hand is a revolver and in his right hand is a textbook
And if none of us are strong enough to stop him, we'll look up and lose this child who used to believe that he could grow up to change the world
And I cant live with that on my conscience
....Can U?

David Abdullah Muhammad aka "Brotha Newz" 2007
David was born in Kansas City, MO and currently resides in Overland Park,KS
He is a Senior at Emporia State University, majoring in Secondary Education (Social Sciences). David has aspirations of teaching high school and running a successful martial arts school. Beyond that, Brotha Newz continues to write dope pieces, make Hajj, and search for a woman who will be his queen, mother, and father.