A life sentence

*I wrote this poem for Dr. Kate Willink's Long Civil Rights Movement course and am performing it tomorrow night @ the Mercury Cafe!

What’s the sentence our country should receive
for a misdemeanor of ignorance in the first degree?
How many years should you do time for committing a felony of oppression?
When will we ever learn our lesson?
We have a debt to pay, its not going away
If Nelson Mandella rolled up into one of our public schools in the US
Would he weep? Would he grimmace? Would he rage in the street?
Because in the free world we’ve created an education system
In which minority students’ opportunities have been mortgaged
They’ve been bundled into neat little securities that we sell to other groups
who sell the them to other groups who in turn make money off of selling the debt to someone else
So at the end of the day, we’ve traded and hustled our way
out of owning the responsibility to reverse things like funding inequality
But who am I kidding?
Can we really say we’ve hustled our way out of anything?
Or has it been more like sitting on a gilded throne Of meriotocracy
Code word for-
I know what’s best for you-
rock-paper-siccers-glue
Something just doesn’t feel right
Maybe it’s the shocking sight
Of segregated apartheid communities
Ghosts of the long Civil Rights Movement
going unnoticed in a” fair and equitable” universe
For me this isn’t over, it’s not quite done
Even though I’m privileged , I’d hardly say I’ve won
Because the history I know
Of people who look like me, do the electric slide like me,
are obsessed with Justin Beiber and try to hide it like me
Ignores the true narrative, the real beauty
Of dreams not deferred, not languishing in obscurity
It turns out that “the other”
Happens to know a different story
One that’s far less boring
One that I need to hear
So I can stop waking up at night
Sweating tidal waves
Because I have this
Creepy crawly feeling
I’ve missed something
And its written on the ceiling.