What the Hell is Happening to WE?

What the hell is happening to this world?

What the hell is happening to WE?

Have we gone dumb?

Have we gone deaf?

Have we gone blind?

Why are we still explaining racism?

Why are we still justifying what’s already clear?

They came on boats.

WE were stolen.

Mothers, fathers, children—torn from the land.

Packed like sardines.

Chained like cargo.

Dying in filth.

Bleeding in darkness.

Screaming in silence.

And when WE arrived?

Sold

Raped.

Whipped

Hung

Mutilated

Forced into fields from sunup to sundown.

And when the fields were done?

We cooked their meals.

We raised their children.

We nursed their babies at our own breasts—only to have those babies grow up and beat the milk out of us.

1865 they said we were free.

But freedom was a lie

.A trick.

A ploy

No land

No schools

No power.

Just chains without shackles

Slavery by another name.

But WE built this nation.

Brick by brick.

Note by note

Number by number.

Song by song.

WE invented

WE created

WE dreamed

And what did they do?

Stole it

Stamped their names on it.

Buried ours in the dust.

Civil Rights came—we demanded freedom, dignity, life.

And still WE rose.

In sports

In music.

In classrooms

In boardrooms.

Like phoenixes, WE rose.

So, what did they do?

They redlined our neighborhoods.

They poisoned our water.

They segregated our schools.

They burned down our towns.

When that didn't stop us?

They flooded us with drugs.

They armed us with guns.

They turned us on each other.

Now our babies wear labels

ADD.

ADHD.

Depression

Anxiety

.They invent diseases.

They sell us pills.

Side effects endless.

Cures? Never.

Then they call us lazy.

Then they strip our rights.

Then they move the bar higher.

And WE—descendants of kings and queens

builders of pyramids,

Moors

scholars

teachers

leaders—WE got tired.

WE got numb.

WE drifted from our village.

We code-switch.

We assimilate.

We become THEM.

We forget US.

We forget our pyramids.

We forget our brilliance

.We forget our royalty.

We forget our power.

And WE—we start believing their lies.

We betray each other for their approval

We stab OURSELVES in the back for THEIR applause.

We silence our greatness.

We shrink our light.

Some of us don’t want to know.

Some don’t care.

Some have lost all hope.

So, I stand here, asking—pleading—crying out loud—

What the hell is happening to WE?

What the hell is happening to WE?