I don't mean to come at y'all disrespectfully
Or demand somehow that you should open up to me
I'm expressing some awareness of what my country do to you
Take a strong black song and make it blue
The conversation seems forever stuck in the second grade
“We're all the same” - then what the fuck about your rage?
Y'all just supposed to keep it zipped at the lip?
Don't rock the boat, handle it cuz it's your shit?
“Oh we just can't take it when y'all get upset”
But what color dying in the hood and on the rez?
Even if our past wasn't what it was
Present injustices alone would be enough
Oh what to do with what we actually feel?
The racial division and skisms they instilled?
Something so complex, so entrenched, so ill
I wanna stare that shit right in the grill
If there's one thing I do know from my own experience
It's that wrongdoing needs acknowledgement
You can't magic wand that shit away
The one who suffered gonna have a lot to say


Black man, black man, black man!
Let's have it out
Don't wanna take the topic on another roundabout
I ain't scared of your anger: still, it hurts
Can I get over the fact that it ain't personally deserved?
Can I remember the central issue here's your pain?
Is my love strong enough to maintain
In the face of your truth?


And so many of my color gotta be convinced that your specific agony is even legit
“Everybody's suffered-” well of course that's true
And now I'm speaking bout white on black abuse
An oppression gnawing at my country's bones
No I cannot leave that shit alone
Collective memories of black bodies writhing in flames
And on our side, we just writhing in shame
Whether we know it or not, they got our hearts on lock
Clamoring at the cages of race that do not
Allow expression of our natural tendency
To know one another as family
Oh what to do in a nation based on so much denial
Years of terror raining down on black woman and child
Feeding us a fantasy it's all in the past
But the brutality of slavery is heard in gun blasts
Oh I know it: those ghosts are with us all the time
No matter your side of the color divide
A nation build on something SO foul cannot rest
The spirits simply must be addressed!

Black woman! Let's have it out!
Don't wanna take the topic on another roundabout
I ain't scared of your anger- still, it hurts
Can I get over the fact that it ain't personally deserved?
Can I remember the central issue here's your pain?
Is my love strong enough to maintain
In the face of your truth?


My right to speak in these tones is objectionable to some
They got a word for it: appropriation
So I should keep it lily-white....right?
It ain't fair I rock the style when I never had to fight
Through the same struggles
Oh the Man just hands me respect
Never had an ancestor noose around his neck
(Well that ain't exactly true the Inquisition further back)
But hell no I don't know how it feels to be black
It's understandably opening of deep-ass scars
To see these white kids like me spittin' bars
Shakin' ass
Plus I got the white girl pass?
Access to all the privileges of white middle class
To the riches of a nation built on y'all's broken heart
But it's the nature of this fertile goddess we call art
To cross-pollinate, it's the movement of air
But the least I can do is actually care


Black people! Let's have it out!
Don't wanna take the topic on another roundabout
I ain't scared of your anger- still, it hurts
Can I get over the fact that it ain't personally deserved?
Can I remember the central issue here's your pain?
Is my love strong enough to maintain
In the face of your truth?


In the face of your truth
Yo for real, for real
In a spirit of humility and respect
I want to say thank you to the black people of my country
For enduring what y'all have endured
To your ancestors for surviving and passing on life and allowing y'all to be here as a part of this nation that has shown y'all SO little love
Thank you for your culture, for your love
That has been a blessing to my life in more ways than I could ever say
Than I could ever say

From “Let's Have It Out” by Asliani
COPYRIGHT ASLIANI 2014 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED