Dear Humans,
I’ve got something to say,
there are lots of issues in the world,
but I’m here to address a specific one today.
So many problems on this planet to face,
but one of the worst ones of all is the problem of race.
As a boy growing up my life was just fine,
but something changed when I had turned 9.
I told my mom I needed a skin colour crayon for school,
but when she bought me a brown one I told her it wouldn’t do.
I said I needed a tan one,
because that’s what the teacher said in class.
But when she told me that wasn’t my colour,
I had just laughed.
I never really thought that I wasn’t the same,
I knew my skin was different, but I wasn’t ashamed.
When Trayvon Martin was killed I became more aware,
as a Black boy in North America I was a little bit scared
But I thought that living in Canada I would be okay,
but my family down in the States, I prayed for them every day.
When Eric Garner was killed, it brought me to tears,
I had never seen such injustice in all of my years.
Tell me why “I can’t breathe” was said 11 times as he was choked to death,
and the officer went uncharged without breaking a sweat.
Tell me why Michael Brown’s hands were up in the air,
but the police still shot him without a care,
like he was a balloon on the wall of a county fair.
Tell me why Walter Scott was running away,
but the cops still decided to let the bullets spray.
Tell me why Amadou Diallo was reaching in his pocket, getting his wallet in place,
but they still fired the gunshots like a false start at a track race.
These are just a few of the names of the innocent Black men that were killed,
the unnecessary blood that was spilled,
the lives that were taken,
mother’s left shaken.
Is dark skin really that bad?
Is a Black man’s life a crime?
And if it is,
what do I do to protect mine?
Slavery may have ended, but what has really changed?
Our brains are enslaved, minds are in chains,
My people are dying just because we don’t look the same.
When I bring my boy and my girl in this world will they be at a disadvantage because they are Black?
I want them to succeed, not to bleed.
And that means, we need change.
Change takes time, change is slow,
but as a people it lets us grow.
Please humans,
I’m begging on my knees, humans.
We need to remove the chains from our brains and be free.
Free from this twisted mentality that we refer to as society.
For my people, this is all that I’m asking,
and one day, dear humans,
I believe it will happen.