Never gon’ be president
Hey Pete
Poor kids
*cough* black
In poor neighborhoods
*cough* black
Aren’t living lives
Without role models
Without value on education
Without aspirations
Greater than America’s boot on our necks
Tells us we should have
We have been soaring in higher education
Flying with Intellect
Making ways out of no ways
Teaching each other to learn
To write
To read
Even under threat of death
Long before your father arrived from Malta
Long before you forgot your immigrant legacy
And became white
If you see a gap
Disparities
Inequities
Lack of resources
It’s not because we chose it
Because we woke up one day and said
“We don’t want no education
We don’t want no good schools
We don’t want no safe neighborhoods
We don’t want nothing but to be killed by
Blue hands”
It was made this way
Structured this way
Supported this way
Racism works this way
Our heroes don’t just testify to the
Importance of education
They are gods and goddesses of survival
Kings and Queens of resilience
They built this country
And then they built our own schools
Our own communities
Our own wealth
And no matter how many times
This country has tried to burn us down
Still we rise
From the ashes
From the asphalt
From the projects
From the hoods
From the lack
From the denial
From the klan
From jim crow
From red line and black belts
From death
We rise
With caps and hoods and tams
In our black hands
Degrees in our black hands
Hope in our black hands
That we have crafted
Molded
Planted and harvested
For our generations to collect
It’s ok Pete
You are dangerous
You are a liar
You are an embarrassment
But I know
*in my best Hamilton voice*
“You never gon’ be president”
