The idea of your founding is what really has my heart
On paper at least, it was a revolutionary start
but while you were claiming all men are born equal
that part of the story got cut till the sequel
You see, I'm a black man who loves the idea of my country
But you enslaved and made people forget they were once free
You shackled their bodies and spirits and minds
you raw raped their freedom, you can still see the signs
You forced their submission and claimed you were supreme
killing off those who threatened your lies with their dreams
To veil your vile ways you believed your own lies, see
so your greats and your grands and your parents despise me
It baffles my mind to behold all the hatred
that warps and that twists and says white lives are sacred
Where does hate go after burning so hot
after lying and raping and killing, it's not
the kind of thing you can squash overnight
generations it takes for hate to see the light
so maybe you still hate and don't even know it
you say, "I don't see color" but your actions don't show it
Maybe it's baked into your DNA
laying low until needed to help you get your way
Maybe I'm making it a bigger deal than I should
and your hate should be viewed as something that's good
It leads to reductions in crime by jailing blacks cause of crack
and gives billions in treatment for whites' opioids & smack
If that's not hate in disguise then what might it be
Your alternative facts, they're hate too, don't you see.
If any other country did this, I would hate it
yet I still love your promise. I know - complicated
I am encouraged by fighters that fought before me
Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass and Muhammad Ali
They faced opponents much more brutal than mine
yet, the fight remains bitter after all of this time
There are some of you that have broken the cycle
but when constantly told you are better then why go
out of your way to fix wrong and make right
when the privilege you hold is hiding in plain sight
Why give up your advantage when it's proof you have heart
you claim you worked harder forgetting to count your head-start
You benefit in ways you don’t realize
reap rewards and refuse to at least recognize
that often, though smart, creative and bold,
it’s your whiteness that takes you from “for sale” to “sold”
Staying focused while over my shoulder I look
is like driving a car while reading a book
Think how much faster and farther I’d go
if not for your stop & frisk mind games that slow
my progress and train me to always be on guard
subliminally programming me that I’m less and life’s hard
that you’re more and life’s cards are always in your hand
and you deal me in only when I take a stand
You want nothing more than for me to be gone
but my blood built this house and the land it sits on
You should wake everyday thanking me and my kin
without us you’d be outside the world looking in
I’ve battled your limits and pursued my dreams
Been connected to 3 World Championship teams
I am bold, I take risks, I am mad innovative
those things you reward so here’s where my fate lives
I don’t speak swahili or french or chinese
I was born here and belong here so won’t you just please
stop telling me to go back if I don’t like it here
America's promise is my inheritance and just to be clear
if you cared about this country this is what you should do
help make it better for all not just “great again” for you
*Updated to include the first four lines and various other rearrangements of text