Wrote this in 2011 after The Announcement by Lebron
In the media Lebron James is beating Oscar Grant in a game of one on one
The crown of media hype sitting firmly on the Kings head while
People are in their feelings – all on facebook
Lamenting how too many statuses are pointing to LJ
And not enough to Oscar -
Or the Bart cop who got away -
With murder, a jury giving Johannes an un-copped plea
Another sentence for the death of a black man,
Where the perp effectively goes free
They even criticizing Lebron for have an account on Twitter
And doing the criticizing with their own accunt
On Twitter...
WE need to stop being horses and start taking reins
We wail and lament and rail against the machine,
All too little to no avail it seems
And wonder in frustration why we let an NBA trade shuffle to the back
The story of Oscar being shot in his back
Is it that priorities are this misguided, or misled?
Or maybe it’s our perspective
That’s miscalibrated
Where importance is ignored
And ignorance celebrated
We
Need to stop being horses and start taking reins
But wait, I get it – I just aint bought it all yet
I didn't hear a protest when New York officer David London beat down Walter Harvin -
A homeless vet
Hit him while prone on the ground 20 times with his baton – and got an acquittal
Did the critics forget the playoff season long enough to remember the name of the girl shot by police as they burst mistakenly into her home?
Who’s name sticks out for them more – Kobe Bryant’s or Aiyanna Jones?
We say Fuck the police – and we remember Rodney King
Or Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Mike Brown and Bernard Monroe,
What, do you know Bernard Monroe???
Oh, He’s just another brotha
Shot in is front hard – just before he turned 74
Per chance he was forgotten because his murder occurred in the same
Week as an NBA All Star game
Now…
If you fall into the majority of brothas 15 to 34
The CDC
-Says that the number one cause of death for these brothas-
Is someone causing the death of these brothas
And 9 times out of 10 –
Their murderer has the same skin color as them
Do we continue to take black on black crime and assign it a white badge of blame?
Or, do WE
Stop being horses and start taking reigns
Now, I submit that there is a worthy story in the Lebron move to the Heat
Just witness the tirade made by Cavs owner Dan Gilbert
Where he took LJ to task
For forgoing much more pay – for Miami-Dade, Bosh, and Wade
And in pursuit of a ring, left his ass
The Coach, and the rest of the Cavs
And the city and its too-many-to-count unfulfilled seasons
All for an over-simplistic “I want a championship” reason
I saw Gil’s sweet tea and parasol come out
With his white suit and straw hat-
And he was sweatin’
He done lost his Tobey
Who’s gonna pick his cotton now?
Who’s gonna pay for his mansion?
Who’s gonna help him overcome Jordan’s shot over Ehlo?
Now that Toby done found his Nat Turner-
His inner Jesse Owens – and ran the hell away?
Was Lebron really disloyal?
An ungrateful nigger?
A forgetful slave?
An uppity jigaboo?
Shall we give the owner empathy?
And give Lebron our disdain
Or do we big-up King James?
Who for a minute quit being a horse
And took up his own reins?
See, don't we need self empowerment?
Not the kind that creates BET
But the kind that drives us in droves to Universities
Where we can avoid a present
That cauterizes us with hypocrisy
Lemme give you a bit of perspective:
Oscar Grants killer – found guilty of manslaughter by a jury of his peers
(Meaning: no black people on that jury)
Will most likely do 2 years -
Which is the same amount of time Plaxico Burress got
For shooting himself in the leg...
And the moral of the story?
Shit, stop shooting yourselves in the leg…
Yet we kill ourselves
And rob ourselves
And rape ourselves
Never uplift ourselves
Or forgive ourselves
So in the arena of public opinion
Oscar Grant and Lebron James may indeed
Share the same court -
2 different players in the same fucked up game
The system is flawed, and racist
But we aint dodging whips no more (we're driving them)
And the shackles are mostly mental-
Is it not
Time to give up the habit of depression
Cast off the robes of victimization
Dip ourselves in the river of preservation
That washes away the destiny of pain…
Is it not Time.
We.
Stop being horses
And take up our own reins?
