I'm not giving up my greens or my grits or saying "girlll" and
putting
my hands on my hips. You see.. Life for me ain't been no crystal
stair
and I'm not giving up Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamner, Mary McCleod
Bethune, Sojourner Truth, Madame C J. Walker, Toni Morrison or
Dr. Maya
Angelou, 'cause you see, I am a phenomenal woman and
I'm not giving my
black back.
I'm not giving up my crown, waves, braids, curls, locks, kinks or kente
clothe. I'm not giving up the mass choirs, the Sounds of Blackness,
Mahalia, Shirley Caesar, Kirk Franklin or Aretha Franklin.
I'm not giving up sitting in Ma'Dear's kitchen eating peach
cobbler
or sweet potato pie and hearing her ask me, "how you doing baby?"
I'm not giving up going to "You Buy, We Fry" on Fridays, or bar-b-ques
on
Saturday playing bid wist and slammin' those dominoes.
I'm not giving back Harriet Tubman's train, Soul Train, Coltrane or
the midnight train to Georgia.
Now you can meet me at the function at the junction but I still
won't give up B.B. King, the Whispers, Fancy Ms. Nancy, Lena Horne,
the Philadelphia Sound, Motown or the Temptations, 'cause you see,
it's the way we do the things we do, like building the pyramids that
still stand made by our forefather's hands where the diamonds, oil, silver
and gold are buried in our rich dark land.
I'm not giving my black back!
I'm happy being nappy with my wide hips and my wide nose and
the rich melanin in my skin. I love putting lotion on my ashy legs.
Oh, I'm happy being nappy and being in the skin that l'm in.
I won't deny or forget my ancestors who lay in a wet grave at the bottom
of the sea in the middle passage from slave trade. And I won't give up
on our youth of today who still need a way made.
I won't give back Miles even though he didn't smile. I won't give
back Marvin Gaye, Richard Pryor, Phyllis Hyman, Billie Holiday or Bille
Eckstein, Jackie Robinson or Jackie Wilson.
I won't give back the electric slide, Alvin Ailey, Bojangles or Debbie Allen.
You think I'd give up reading my Jet, Ebony, Essence, Emerge, Black
Enterprise, Heart and Soul or Upscale magazines?
For we are a colorful people. Like Curtis Mayfield sang, we are a people
that are "darker than blue." We are honey, cinnamon, mahogany and
chocolate. We are REDD Fox, James BROWN, Barry WHITE, The Mothers of
the
Church dressed in WHITE, The Color PURPLE, the Lady Who Sings the
BLUES
and we are Al GREEN with love and happiness.
OH, NO... I'm not giving my black back!
I'm not giving back Maxine (Waters), Martin, Medgar, Malcolm, Mandela,
Marley, Marcus, Muhammad Ali, Michael (Jordan) or the Million Man March.
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