“Black Excellence”
Still shining; Still alive; Maya Angelou “Still I Rise”
Alabama bred
Fuck the lies you’ve been fed
Can’t last a day in my homestead
Can’t walk a mile in my granddaddy shoes
Built a house from the foundation up
Grammy said she didn’t work this hard
Just to watch me give up
Black excellence
Ancestors fought against all elements
This the type of strength
You can’t get from peddlin’
I know the truth must be deafening
Southern bred
All the bloodshed
Legs dangling from tree limbs
Left for dead
Don’t ask me to fact-check what I read
When my people lived it
When it’s you that’s been misled
Thrown scraps out the back door
Black codes still in legislation
Laws just to keep us poor
Generational poverty
Worse than highway robbery
Where we didn’t have quality
Or quantity
Imagine the heartbreaking discovery
Of being told you’re property
