[Music]
let’s talk about it let’s talk about my
testimony let’s talk about those
thoughts that keep my mind in this
negative terminal
I’ve lost 45 friends to gun violence
let’s talk about those knives let’s talk
about that pain are you listening you
can’t hear me you can’t hear my pain you
can’t make me make myself feel better
and I learned at a young age and was
never about the cheddar so many friends
in prison because of it and I can’t even
swallow my pride and write them a letter
let’s talk about why my people want to
be so flashy and gained so much
self-indulgence see I’m not blaming you
all but you told me I was a criminal
before I knew what Joe was you told me I
was less than before I could add or
subtract let’s talk about those days at
my friend’s house hearing why is this
nigger in my house let’s talk about my
first best friend having to stop hanging
out with me in fifth grade because
hanging out with black kids will lead
him to trouble let’s talk about I have
to take my hands out of my pockets
before I go to any store just saw won’t
be convicted of suspicion let’s talk
about how to walk across the street if I
see a woman on the same side of the
street as me in fear that she is in fear
let’s talk about the accidental Mayson
that happened to me when I sneeze
walking past the woman and maybe she was
trying to bless me but the only
substitution for holy water was mace
let’s talk about this illusion this
confusion you don’t know me but you can
be find me my people are lost and I’m
still trying to find me
I want to talk to you about why you had
these irrational fears but you don’t
want to talk about in high school I was
given the opportunity to share my story
in the basement of Washburn high school
and a little room painted in all black
would be what I found out about black
box theater a woman by the name of
Crystal Springs took away our phones and
told us to write poems she told us to
create stories she gave us the
opportunity to get up in front of
hundreds of people torn to different
schools in Minnesota but the most
critical thing that I could take from
our class was this banner stretching the
wall a voice for the voiceless it said
that has now become our purpose my
purpose is to be a voice for those
affected by racial discrimination by
talking about the experiences I have
gone through to challenge the audience’s
thoughts from the reality of ethnicity
and the effects of racial discrimination
knowing that it is possible to fix the
wounds of evilness even with my
experiences I still believe that it is
possible to end individual and systemic
discrimination but if we are not willing
to change our minds we are not being
critical thinkers I want you to know
that I’m your brother I’m your son I am
that kid that lives next door and you
don’t have to prove to me that you
aren’t racist I am someone who is going
to love you regardless of if you love me
or not
with that being said you have a great
responsibility there are some things we
need to see stopped transformed and
reformed racial discrimination is not
above all white people are doing wrong
black people discriminate against other
black people and other ethnicities have
prejudices and discriminate against
black people as well we must all help
break the barriers of individual and
systemic racial discrimination that has
long been upheld because of white
supremacy with that being said white
guilt doesn’t save lives
stop having this false pity from you
stop teaching your children to not see
color I understand it protects you from
not seeming racist but not seeing color
only invalidates my experiences as a
black
man if you don’t see color look at the
obvious disparities in my community the
educational disparities the economic
opportunities our neighborhoods and our
work conditions and the most frustrating
part about it all is when people fail to
look at my experiences and ask questions
like hasn’t racism changed racism has
changed as my mother would say racism is
now sugar-coated because now I can work
with you but you don’t have to approve
of my life
now I can go to school with you play
football with you but you can never take
me home to your family when I mention my
favorite foods you remind me of how
you’ve never heard of it when I tell you
that I’m from North Minneapolis you ask
me how it is to live in the ghetto I can
see the spiral of non-intentional
unconscious racially tall media
reinforced racial ideologies you have
towards me and I don’t believe that all
the prejudices you have towards me are
completely your fault
black people are constantly perceived on
television as criminals dangerous thugs
entertainers or athletes we are
perceived to be lower achievers
rebellious disrespectful violent and
loud but most of all our fear to our
nation
these ideologies were used in the
slavery and Jim Crow times as propaganda
to help America see black people as
inferior and it worked and it is still
working even now as a black man and shot
dead and killed in New York City by a
white man all they seem to mention is
how nicely dressed the white man is but
bring up the black man’s criminal record
I want you to know that even though you
have these prejudices towards me and you
might use the movies or the media for
your reason to justify why I want you to
know I genuinely have love for you
because although racism didn’t start
with us it can end with us we are
reminded that black men should be more
obedient and maybe they wouldn’t die
from police brutality what picture are
they painting
you what picture are they paying you
we are historical times and a lot of
historical things are repeating you but
as my neighbor I must tell you that my
neighborhoods history is far unlike
yours
I’ve lived in North Minneapolis most of
my entire life I’ve seen boys play
basketball from sunup to sundown I’ve
seen girls sit outside and get their
hair days I’ve seen boys and girls bike
around from streetlight to streetlight
but you know what it was the drug
dealers who brought all the kids on the
black ice cream
it was the gangbangers who made sure you
got home safely
it was the unfit mothers who let
children stay at their houses when they
didn’t have houses of their own and it
was the graffiti field parks that made
us into our own superheroes I concluded
that my life was regular the things
going on in my community happened in
every community I would soon realize how
falsified this information was drug
raids were my normal only two kids being
allowed to go into a corner store at one
time was my normal being one of the few
kids on the block who knew his father
was my normal there’s a five-year-old
boy shot and killed a block away from my
house while he was sleeping now that
wasn’t normal what had happened and even
as I moved over to south side of
Minneapolis I would soon realized that
there was a lot of similarities that the
neighborhoods that I lived in had so I
have a question for you if this was my
normal why wasn’t this your normal was
this the normal that Martin Luther King
dreamed for his nation so I’m asking you
today he used my experiences I have a
African proverb and I will leave you
with this if you stand on a man’s back
you can see further and reach higher can
you all stand on my back
using my experiences to speak up and be
a voice for the voiceless god bless
let’s talk about it let’s talk about my
testimony let’s talk about those
thoughts that keep my mind in this
negative terminal
I’ve lost 45 friends to gun violence
let’s talk about those knives let’s talk
about that pain are you listening you
can’t hear me you can’t hear my pain you
can’t make me make myself feel better
and I learned at a young age and was
never about the cheddar so many friends
in prison because of it and I can’t even
swallow my pride and write them a letter
let’s talk about why my people want to
be so flashy and gained so much
self-indulgence see I’m not blaming you
all but you told me I was a criminal
before I knew what Joe was you told me I
was less than before I could add or
subtract let’s talk about those days at
my friend’s house hearing why is this
nigger in my house let’s talk about my
first best friend having to stop hanging
out with me in fifth grade because
hanging out with black kids will lead
him to trouble let’s talk about I have
to take my hands out of my pockets
before I go to any store just saw won’t
be convicted of suspicion let’s talk
about how to walk across the street if I
see a woman on the same side of the
street as me in fear that she is in fear
let’s talk about the accidental Mayson
that happened to me when I sneeze
walking past the woman and maybe she was
trying to bless me but the only
substitution for holy water was mace
let’s talk about this illusion this
confusion you don’t know me but you can
be find me my people are lost and I’m
still trying to find me
I want to talk to you about why you had
these irrational fears but you don’t
want to talk about in high school I was
given the opportunity to share my story
in the basement of Washburn high school
and a little room painted in all black
would be what I found out about black
box theater a woman by the name of
Crystal Springs took away our phones and
told us to write poems she told us to
create stories she gave us the
opportunity to get up in front of
hundreds of people torn to different
schools in Minnesota but the most
critical thing that I could take from
our class was this banner stretching the
wall a voice for the voiceless it said
that has now become our purpose my
purpose is to be a voice for those
affected by racial discrimination by
talking about the experiences I have
gone through to challenge the audience’s
thoughts from the reality of ethnicity
and the effects of racial discrimination
knowing that it is possible to fix the
wounds of evilness even with my
experiences I still believe that it is
possible to end individual and systemic
discrimination but if we are not willing
to change our minds we are not being
critical thinkers I want you to know
that I’m your brother I’m your son I am
that kid that lives next door and you
don’t have to prove to me that you
aren’t racist I am someone who is going
to love you regardless of if you love me
or not
with that being said you have a great
responsibility there are some things we
need to see stopped transformed and
reformed racial discrimination is not
above all white people are doing wrong
black people discriminate against other
black people and other ethnicities have
prejudices and discriminate against
black people as well we must all help
break the barriers of individual and
systemic racial discrimination that has
long been upheld because of white
supremacy with that being said white
guilt doesn’t save lives
stop having this false pity from you
stop teaching your children to not see
color I understand it protects you from
not seeming racist but not seeing color
only invalidates my experiences as a
black
man if you don’t see color look at the
obvious disparities in my community the
educational disparities the economic
opportunities our neighborhoods and our
work conditions and the most frustrating
part about it all is when people fail to
look at my experiences and ask questions
like hasn’t racism changed racism has
changed as my mother would say racism is
now sugar-coated because now I can work
with you but you don’t have to approve
of my life
now I can go to school with you play
football with you but you can never take
me home to your family when I mention my
favorite foods you remind me of how
you’ve never heard of it when I tell you
that I’m from North Minneapolis you ask
me how it is to live in the ghetto I can
see the spiral of non-intentional
unconscious racially tall media
reinforced racial ideologies you have
towards me and I don’t believe that all
the prejudices you have towards me are
completely your fault
black people are constantly perceived on
television as criminals dangerous thugs
entertainers or athletes we are
perceived to be lower achievers
rebellious disrespectful violent and
loud but most of all our fear to our
nation
these ideologies were used in the
slavery and Jim Crow times as propaganda
to help America see black people as
inferior and it worked and it is still
working even now as a black man and shot
dead and killed in New York City by a
white man all they seem to mention is
how nicely dressed the white man is but
bring up the black man’s criminal record
I want you to know that even though you
have these prejudices towards me and you
might use the movies or the media for
your reason to justify why I want you to
know I genuinely have love for you
because although racism didn’t start
with us it can end with us we are
reminded that black men should be more
obedient and maybe they wouldn’t die
from police brutality what picture are
they painting
you what picture are they paying you
we are historical times and a lot of
historical things are repeating you but
as my neighbor I must tell you that my
neighborhoods history is far unlike
yours
I’ve lived in North Minneapolis most of
my entire life I’ve seen boys play
basketball from sunup to sundown I’ve
seen girls sit outside and get their
hair days I’ve seen boys and girls bike
around from streetlight to streetlight
but you know what it was the drug
dealers who brought all the kids on the
black ice cream
it was the gangbangers who made sure you
got home safely
it was the unfit mothers who let
children stay at their houses when they
didn’t have houses of their own and it
was the graffiti field parks that made
us into our own superheroes I concluded
that my life was regular the things
going on in my community happened in
every community I would soon realize how
falsified this information was drug
raids were my normal only two kids being
allowed to go into a corner store at one
time was my normal being one of the few
kids on the block who knew his father
was my normal there’s a five-year-old
boy shot and killed a block away from my
house while he was sleeping now that
wasn’t normal what had happened and even
as I moved over to south side of
Minneapolis I would soon realized that
there was a lot of similarities that the
neighborhoods that I lived in had so I
have a question for you if this was my
normal why wasn’t this your normal was
this the normal that Martin Luther King
dreamed for his nation so I’m asking you
today he used my experiences I have a
African proverb and I will leave you
with this if you stand on a man’s back
you can see further and reach higher can
you all stand on my back
using my experiences to speak up and be
a voice for the voiceless god bless
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