Conversation In The Classroom

1.

When I learnt about slavery my teacher couldn’t point at Africa without eyes that gave me lashes; why begin our history with the shackle? One time, the teacher, analysing some dead white man poem said “the mood in this poem is dark, what else can we associate with dark?” and I didn’t want anyone to say “dirt” when they could say “the soil that flooded The River Nile”, didn't want to be marked the complexion of trouble, the companion of devils, not when I could be the ebony birthmark of written language - the eyeshadow of Egypt, the caviar of rebellion, the dyed fabric that lorded the black and red gowns of European royalists.

2.

Police pull me over for being a suspect of my own shade, ask me why and I'll show you how to look like something to be afraid of. We’re killed in custody by the descendants of colonialists; it is in their blood to get away with murder.

3.

I like Jay-Z for capitalizing on the N-word, gave us the concept of "successful Niggas In European cities". No, I don’t know who Richard Pryor is or why he never used the word "nigger" again after visiting Africa, but he was spelling the word, N-I-G-G-E-R, we say N-I-G-G-A, it is a deliberate trip-wire word in the mouth of white people that love Hip-Hop. As long as you say it like an American rapper, the word doesn’t make me think of slavery any more. That whip is stretched too far back in time to slash my 21st Century back, to not say the word is to act like we have not come far enough to be Presidents              or Niggas.