That's Reality

Reality is
That I’m not perfect
Don’t consider me some prized possession
Don’t thank me
Don’t honor me
Don’t recognize me
You see
I’m black
Black as tar to them
Black as mahogany to me
You see my brother man
You see my sister girl
It’s all about the perception
But the reality of this present day society says
I’m a second class citizen in a first rate world
They consider me and my people hostile creatures
Like raging vicious lions,
Ready to pounce on any unsuspecting human that comes our way
They label us as hustlers, pimps, prostitutes and leeches
On society
They heard us up and then lock us up in this cage
So that they can sleep safe and sound at night
In there lovely gated communities
Now that we are safely locked up in this ghetto reality
They got us singing the ghetto blues
We be living like animals trapped in the zoo
Looking between the bars of life
Day dreaming about our chance to be free
Day dreaming about the day we can finally taste
The Sweet American Pie
This is our sad reality
Many brothers and sisters are at their boiling points
Stewing in this pot of hopelessness
Like crabs in the barrel trying to survive
Fully aware of there present fate
Feeling so angry
That you want to lash out
So you hurt the ones that you always see
You see my brother
You see my sister
You tasted the stew of self hate
A slowly cooked brew of the ghetto caldron
The brew is you
My brother, My sister
They got you trapped in this ghetto hell
This self hate will make the male crab rape at night
This self hate will the female crab make babies during the day
They got you selling this dope to your own people
So that they can mentally escape this ghetto reality  
You drive by shoot to kill
What you hate
You see my ghetto child
They made you hate
"YOURSELF"
They got you so full of this rage and self doubt
This ghetto stinks and festers like an open sore
It’s spreading the disease of racial hate
But this hate is all twisted
Got you hating the ones that look like you
Pandemic! Pandemic!
I see why everyone is in a rush
We "beeeeeeeeeee" trying to get the hell up out of this ghetto This urban blight
Is like a never ending cycle
That relentless in its pursuit to destroy our souls
I feel like
I’m living in this game of tug of war
We are trying to hold on real tight to win this fight
This rope of ghetto life is burning up my hands  
Burning up all my hopes and dreams of a future outside this Section Eight.
They always tell us
Why all the struggle and why all the fight
We gave you the opportunity to heal your race
Affirmative action was your miracle cure
But they told us a lie of misinformation
They said we could eat the Sweet American Pie
Your cure was a lie
It treated all the symptoms but not the why
Listen to me!
Your cure was a lie
It treated all the symptoms but not the why
Explain to me why the jail house is disproportionately filled With black
Explain to me why the money we borrow is laced with the hidden Black tax
Explain to me why are our natural disaster is not a disaster
You watched and a waited as the leaves of my heart began to break
My beloved 9th ward is all I knew
You made me live in this New Orleans ghetto
Why did opportunity delay in reaching out a hand, a helping hand?
Anyone that is black can clearly see that your precious Opportunity was laced apathy
And hate for the entire black race
You say hate is a strong word
So you clean it up and call it a knee jerk reaction
But the bottom line still remains the same
You failed to save my ghetto land
Yet you still boldly claim that we as a people have tasted the Sweet American Pie
Your cure was a lie
It treated all the symptoms but not the why
Listen to me!
Your cure was a lie
It treated all the symptoms but not the why
Why do you feel that we are so different?
Why do you feel that we need you to survive?
Some black people are trapped in this ghetto life
Day dreaming about the Sweet American Pie
Were moving on up
Moving on up to the east side
We finally got a piece of the pie
I’m real tired of hoping for that Jefferson Pie
I truly want to leave this ghetto life behind
Open your eyes and visualize
They got you living the ghetto life
I want the whole world to see that I’m more than ghetto life
I need time to shine
I need time to be my own shooting star
Shooting into the heavens
Shooting past the barriers
Shooting past the barrel of the smoking gun
This gun is loaded with the bullets of stigma
Pointed straight at the entire black race
Don’t pass judgment on me
Don’t scrutinize, or patronize me
Because the reality is that I’m not perfect or black or ghetto
I’m more than skin deep
I’m deep as you
So deep that i bleed RED just like you
Stop judging me skin deep
If you cut me do I not bleed?
Bleeding the same RED blood you bleed
So in reality that makes us equal
That’s reality