They want us to see in black and white, But we ask you to see in color

Our skin, Carmel, brown, and chocolate look different amongst one another

It becomes glazed under the yellow sun

Like our eyes: dark brown, light brown and hazel

They sparkle like the stars, that feel so far away

So powerful and ominous like an Angel 

Our hair entices the rainbow wheel and you look at it in awe

Not knowing that our curls, braids, weaves, and locs

And bald heads, and naturals, and relaxed inches, could talk

Our clothes speak to our identity which is florescent and bright

But those colors have been bleak because we are dying every night

There is a culture within our colors which runs deep in the present generation

And it can only be carried through OUR DNA

it’s our “ancestors reincarnation”

You want us to see in black and white because it’s easier for you to tell

The difference in skin color because the only options are dark or pale

These two tone perspectives produced two faced people

Like your skin in the summer time, honey that brown ain’t equal

Our vibrant colors make up the art that you are endlessly influenced by

Your white skin erasing that all, and calling it yours consistently, why?

Maybe because you claim you don’t see color, so you must not be racist.

Thats the problem. We are called black, but present you a color swatch of diverse brown faces

Or because your fragile white snow can lay on top of a black mountain for the first time in it’s life

And suddenly believe it is the mountains protector out of spite 

Or because there is brutality in your history books so you white wash it with your superiority

Then go to our homeland, our creation, and ask for charity

You destroyed our wooden symbols of Gods and shackled us in rusty chains

But you are unaware that the green restoration of our mother land continuously courses through our veins 

This green life we have is the same green that runs your government

But you supply our green to men in blue who turn our brown into red for it’s betterment

You blame your failure on the obscure colors of the oppressed 

But demand us to construct, create, and paint your world within your state of the union address

The media you constructed which leaves us transfixed

Tells us to partake in these black and white antics

It’s not a race war, it’s not blacks against whites

It’s the disenfranchised and the vulnerable trying to grasp the light

So Take off the black and white lens that gives you the privilege to be ignorant 

And see the people of color screaming for justice against the colorless background of the belligerent