Fulminate

Fulminate To explode or express with extreme protest We focused this project on this particular verb With hopes that certain themes would reach people who had experienced Similar dreams, schemes, demons, and everything in-between Who am I to say these things, well My name is Marquise Green and I Am a poet, teacher, student Usin' music to release myself from ruin What I mean is prudent, you see, I Am my own Judas And I Threw my head into music To keep it out of nooses And I want us all liberated We're not truly free until the tree that Ms. Nina sung about is seen fruitless They say the apple don't fall far And I don't think it's Far-fetched to say that we're not so far gone From the same harm that befell our ancestors Crosses still burn Officers murder Coffins still turn Still dodgin' Klan members And I say that to say this Racism is still Very alive and Buried inside The layers of pride That weave the fibers That we the people Are "unitedly" standin' upon Coincidentally It took these failures developmentally And combined with the experience Partaken by myself, friends, and my family That helped me develop Mentally enough to create this project And through this process It helped me progress As a human to realize that I need to use my voice to provide context Hopefully help unravel this whole complex That suppresses my fellow melanated brothers and sisters I've spent my whole life Wondering if everything I've ever been told was a lie And that when I die, there isn't an afterlife And then my brother told me some grand advice He advised me to live to the fullest Because there's no guarantee you'll survive After this rollercoaster called Life is done So after applyin' some of This logic I got Pissed off 'cuz No matter how hard I saw my friends and fam' Try to Live proper The amount of institutional blocks in place Made it hard to fix problems Think about Flint They still can't Get water So miss me with the irrelevance You wanna make America great again Blacks, Natives, Islanders, Hispanics, Asians Ask one if America was ever great to them When all we see televised is hatred Wars between nations Poverty and displacement Don't blame us when we begin to make our own directions Which brings me to one question Why do you try to hide the White lies that Lead to our lives Being gentrified By the guys who's nine to five Provides enough for sustainable life If you feel like you're being threatened Because our skin isn't your complexion And disregard what our intent is Then we will become a menace And don't tell me slavery is dead We went from being whipped and chained To buyin' whips and chains, let me explain That gold on your neck That designer on your belt Is just extra cash you've given to a corporation We've become so infatuated with fashion and materialism That we willingly halt our advancement and support an Insidious system, hidden in the disguise of capitalism We still slaves I can't stand it Nike, Gucci, Jordan, we still branded This thirst for brandin', and success Actually leads us to a mess We become so thirsty to get out of poverty And find relief That some of us start Robbin' people 'Cuz America doesn't allow us to get by, honestly And at what cost They don't wanna keep us educated They wanna keep us lost Don't believe me Here's facts African American's make up thirteen percent of the U.S. population But make up forty percent U.S. people incarcerated Imagine that How can we trust a government that wants us in shackles That sounds like Stockholm Which also brings us to a crossroad To cope with the racial disparity Many of us self-medicate In the Hood, there's a lack of programs Telling us to Telling us to meditate Or to help us with Alcoholism, drug use, or our mental health So what do we do Many of us drown ourselves And become another statistic on the hitlist that the one percent of this great country has administered Call Mortal Kombat, they bout to finish us Do you know how hard it is To tell someone in prison To hold they head Knowin' they'll never get to hold they kids And if they kill themselves Ain't nobody gonna hold they breathe Saying these things are hard for me Because somebody without a purpose Is something that they want us to be So my advice to you Is to love whatever it is you do And pursue it whole-heartedly Remember how hard your ancestors fought to make America A place for you to start something Remember you are cut from the cloth of Kings and queens Who's skin was black as ink And are destined to do incredible things You look exactly how you're s'posed to There's no debate And above all else Challenge racism At every opportunity Do not allow Anybody Vice Or institution to ruin you And never lose yo' faith This is how we strike back As quick as lightin' With all the love, wisdom, and knowledge That we Unapologetically Black We fulminate