Silence rests on my tongue
From fear of it being cut from my body
Fear of me being stripped of my right to freely speak
But I am supposed to sit in churches with pastors who preach
On lies just trying to fill their pockets with money
So not only can they have their bread and butter
But their biscuits and honey
Silence rests on my tongue for I am too honest in my thoughts
But the world I was raised in has it set that the pigment of my skin
Is my crutch, I’ve witnessed the only response to honesty is a rope tied to a tree
The tree that God planted in this earth, but turned against us
Handcuffs placed on our wrists
Bullets used, we are told only in defensive situations
I didn’t know that wearing a hoodie posed a threat
But the system is supposed to help us right?
But they’re turning us against each other and were too blind to see
The white man wants us to fight! He sets us in cages of iron bars like pit bulls
Trained to fight
He has set us up for failure but were too quick to react instead of sitting back and
Reinforcing our actions with knowledge
We fight just like he wants us to, we spit death at the tips of our tongues
On one another, we throw life out the window like a dream withered away
We are doing just what the white man wants us to do
But silence rests on my tongue
If my skin was 3 shades lighter I would be accepted anywhere
But still now I walk into department stores and get stares
I never knew that white money and black money were different
It’s all green
And yet still if I was pink
The white man would worship the ground I walk on
But I am brown in pigment and red on the inside
It’s these colors that hold us all blind to the matter at hand, that we are all
Children created from heaven above
Sprung the groins with love
Listen white man!
I will not remain silent anymore
My school is not a plantation
And you are no longer the slave owner
Silence rested on my tongue
From fear of fifty lashes
Fifty lashes on the form of those pretty metal bracelets, that rope tied to a tree of hope
But Jesus endured 1000 lashes and wore a crown of thorns
The lashes your mouth births only create the crown that I wear everyday
I am a queen by every means of the word I
Will not remain silent anymore
I am spat on by the curly locks that dance on the top of my head
I am looked down upon by my sun kissed skin but no longer will
I allow my tongue to remain silent
So the knowledge that I hold will now be spread
And if being pierced by a bullet is my punishment then so be it
Victory will be mine
Because neither handcuffs, ropes, neither bullets, nor whips can hold
Me back from the truth and the justice it brings
Are you listening?
Let your tongues harmonize with mine brothers and sisters
As we break the chains that have been wrapped around our minds for 300
Years by the white man
That we can’t do what they do
That we can take the hate they throw at us
And rise like David and Goliath
We were created champions but
We seem to have forgotten
But no longer will silence rest on my tongue
