Our great historical leaders spoke of our whips and our chains

Never letting our people forget where it is that we came from

But to see us in this day would only shame them with pain

Because we’ve come a long ways, but we’re not what we’ve become

The trials we have endured have pushed us so very far

But, in a moment of lost pride, we are not what we are

They spoke of equality and integration for all of our youth

So how is it that our discrimination has thickened with hate

And just as easy as it is for me to look at my people with truth

I could almost say this revelation came a dollar short and day late

Our mindset is that the world owes us for our past sorrow

We blame our low standings on the whites and the “man”

But we are so focused on yesterday that we don’t see tomorrow

And we don’t see that the whites are just doing what we can

We lie to ourselves; they do not hold us down with their oppression

It is our own that causes us to live in recession within recession

Fortune and fame is a chance that we want and none of us would like to miss

But we think we can do it without our brethren because ignorance is bliss

Instead of helping each other we attack comrades with the intent of killing

Why is it that the coloreds can’t realize that it is impossible to do it alone

We have so low that we must resort to lies, cheats, and stealing

We should turn our anger into inspiration instead of lust for flesh and bone

It is time for us to step up and stop being the world’s entertainment

We take all the scraps and enslave ourselves, giving them all the powers

We will never amount to anything if we just sit around waiting for payment

Because payment will only come this way if we first put in those hours

The saddest sight in this world is a ten year old colored with a gun in his hand

Or seeing the news full of men, women, and children splattered on the streets

Is this the world that we want for our kids? This is what I don’t understand

Why is the fight only over when someone’s heart cease’s to beat

This has raise past all common types of cruelty and all other genocide

This black on black crime had turned into the world’s largest suicide

And no one seems to care as long as in the end they get to touch the money

But the money can’t buy them immortality; they get shot down, aint that funny

We picked the nail of ignorance and stupidity to nail us down hard

But I stand firm when I say this, we are not what we are