THE STRUGGLE

The struggle is real!

There is a black struggle.  It is reviled, disavowed, and never reputed. 
Yet, there is a black struggle.  The painful evidence cannot be refuted. 
It was born out of ignorant beliefs and manipulated by the wicked. 
It turns brother against brother and has our women dancing around half naked. 
It made many of us reject the prize and accept the fool’s loathsome role. 
We ignored our worth as  human beings and lost sight of our internal goals. 
We lie and convince ourselves daily that our actions are funny and cool. 
We joke about our stupid barbarity as the thug culture rampages our schools. 

There is a black struggle.  It burns like a madness in the minds of our little girls. 
It is the struggle that convinces them their worth is in how well their booty can swirl. 
We tell them they are just erotic flesh and encourage them to dance on a sinful stage. 
They slide up and down a dirty pole performing like monkeys trapped inside of a cage. 
We demean a lot of them from their birth.  We tell them to just find a good man. 
We nullify her intrinsic truth:  She can accomplish anything in life with a plan. 

Oh, this degrading black struggle is a truth we simply refuse to face.  
Its madness continues to percolate as our people embrace its ignorance and disgrace. 
It has been present in this country since the first slave picked that first cotton shrub. 
It is a symbiotic part of our culture, and in that lays the really pitiful rub. 
A lot of African-Americans refuse to see it until it's smack dab in their grimacing face. 
They ignore its machinations until they themselves fall into its wanton disgrace. 
They ignore the unfair prison system and excuse its constant legal and cultural misuse. 
They tell themselves it is all media fantasy until they experience its horrible abuse. 
No, this black struggle is always around us and it has become our cross to bear. 
The first step in trying to defeat it is to first honestly admonish that it is there. 

There is a black struggle.  It is the African-Americans inherited plight. 
It has been ignored and painfully manipulated by generations of hateful whites. 
They know the devices of the struggle because their ancestors created the machine. 
It is a diabolical destroyer that tears apart black hopes and inner dreams. 
It is a maniacal machination that still feeds off of African-American screams.
This black struggle was designed to be wicked but it is our people that feed its greed. 
We enable and perpetuate the struggle with every ignorant decision we conceive. 

There is a legitimate black struggle.  It is ignored and often disavowed. 
It will someday destroy every one of us if we don't admonish it and try to shut it down!

© 2014 Eddie Phillips