Injustice Lyrics

My son's name is Michael Justice Ajani Sterling

Michael after his grandfather, not to mention Jordan, Jackson, and Tyson

See, he came out fighting

Cause nowadays, little black boys don't get no justice

Instead, they get profiled, stereotyped, devalued, and taken from us

Now, take it from us

That ain't no way to live

An existence less than tentative, walking on bullet shells, still wearing bibs

Went from killing our leaders to killing our kids

Oh, what a privilege it is, or must be, not to have to relate

Misguided and misinformed, watch how complicity makes way for hate, while pigment or Class

Helps the fortunate to better insulate

It's been going on for years, but only now is it a topic for national debate

When Facebook revolutionaries are talking about, share this meme, video, or photo before

It's too late

It's funny though, how one's fate can depend solely on the irrational fear prejudice plus

Power assigns to each individual's face

But we're the ones tripping, huh

Asking for it and preoccupied with race or some kind of unjustified angst

Stop it

I can't breathe or reach my skittles swinging at the playground playing with my new toy

Pistol

See, I can't help but to feel like you're missing the issue

Then again, this really ain't about you

Your ability to empathize or be more precise when you generalize

Nor is it my responsibility to make you confront the error in your own lives or comfort you

Just because you walked with a few signs

Stop posing for pictures and open your eyes

Actually open your ears and let in the cries

And please put away this popular post-racial propaganda that populates my timeline

We talked about the injustice of how he died in hashtag Black Lives Matter or Still I Rise

Then you reply all lives matter

Stop trying to divide

Worry about gangsters and black on black crime

Now that's fine

Though unrelated and an intellectual waste of time

Because it's not at all unique in comparison to the scale of white on white crime

Not to mention, I thought we held police to a higher standard than everyday citizens who

Actually get prosecuted and later held accountable for their crimes

No, not this time

I see, I see

The prison industrial complex was created for folk that look like me

I got it

I guess you could say I just take issue with our strategy

Reluctant to recycle the tactics of yesterday

As if the enemy is not prepared, protected, and more concerned with today

Far from frightened by our marches, riots, and fledgling displays of solidarity

Especially while the settler state controls the media and how we are portrayed

No, no, no shade

However I'm a little ambivalent about what I see on the news and the internets

Some think these protests are amazing

And others, pointless

Some wanted to boycott Black Friday while others saw that as useless

Some actually believed that if we put our hands up and yelled, don't shoot, they'd listen

And decide not to abuse us

Others still even more clueless maintain this is the same as Claudette fighting for a seat

On the bus

Thus, advocate for non-violence, walkouts, die-ins, and wait

For the right one to represent Us

Then, there are those more inclined to mistrust like when my father was a Panther they Just

Shot back and shouted y'all ain't finna whoop us

Yup, a lot of people like the way that sound

Except the people who argue it's the government instigating a race war

To get troops on The Ground

Which would mean previously there was some form of peace going around but who Knows

Nevertheless, what are you gonna do when the National Guard runs up in your town and Youngsters

Come up missing

Tell me, is that really how it's gonna go down

Is that why the Patriot Act was written

Now I know how them Patriots gonna act but who all gets to be a citizen

Sounds a little suspect when anyone can be a suspect or should I say domestic subject

But maybe I'm just trippin'

Or maybe I'm just upset that so many of our brothers and sisters, that's right, ancestors

End up in the street bleeding

Beyond the pathos of a mother grieve and I'm past perplexed at what I'm seeing

It's a targeted extermination of a select group of human beings

In fact, one could even argue that it's dangerous just to be black but how do we respond And

Not react

How do we move forward and not back

How do we come together and stay on track

Unity, I understand is the collective opportunity to ignore difference and strategically build

Community

Yet some might say there is no such thing and that there are better ways to organize Complex formations of Identity but then that's all theory and doesn't account for what Transpires

When the person with the gun is afraid of me

See I also heard it said that all cops aren't bad and all whites aren't racist

Well since we're stating the obvious not all accusations are baseless and not all Systematic

Structures of racism are faceless but as we know absolutes seldom lead to winning Statements

And tactics like those merely deflect genuine engagement as well as reflecting ignorance

Of the cases, their own subject position and what race is

And then there are people who don't like living in a police state and feel caged but don't

Mind patrolling and policing what you post on your page

Enraged if they see you're not doing your part

As if awareness alone is where we end and not start

And it breaks my heart

We've got problems but no solutions and instead of an active and involved revolution it Seems

We've gladly accepted comments or likes as our virtual substitution

So I ask what are we doing

But I ain't got all the answers like Kanye told Sway just disturbed by the injustices

Of our day and some of the things some people had to say

So I sift through several circular and shallow arguments to clear the way for some critical

Thinking to go ahead and take place

However I got good news and that's that my God is a just God which means if you're a Christian you're allowed to Do more than just pray but turn the other cheek is what you

Say without the proper Jewish context and sloppily applied to the day

But hey he ain't calling us to be no fool when the Bible says to die daily it's a metaphor

Don't mean just let him kill you or turn a blind eye

Hide behind your faith and oversimplify get scared and not try blame the victim would

Just comply

See I care when you ask why

Did you think it was just my enemies

Hardly I got a license to love my people too

Hardly because fighting racialized oppression ain't nothing new

It's something Moses, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther all went through

It wasn't an apostle Paul who said he'd rather be cursed for his people's sake and Jesus

Didn't he rush to the cross to get his hands dirty not worried about the rust on the stakes

Yes I believe so

So whatever it takes I'm gonna act and fight for my people to be treated equal until he

Gets back

That's my pact

Actually I'm gonna make a plaque that reads my son's name is Michael Justice Ajani Sterling

Ajani is West African for he who wins a struggle and his mother and I weren't referring to

No mere scuffle

See this boy, this boy's gonna be humble but dedicated to the destruction of injustice

And watching it crumble

Sterling well that's the clan and the plan is that he grows in wisdom and stature and

Actually makes it to become a man

His name is a prayer and now we end where we first began with justice