When you are a hammer everything looks like a nail
And it seems that when you're black everything's about race
All of our troubles in the black community are not soley due to racism
Sometimes we must admit that there are wounds that are self-inflicted
Before you get in a tizzy I'm not denying that racial injustices still exist.
And they they are a big obstacle that we must overcome
But we must take responsibility for the damage done by us to us
We hold the knife that continues to rip us open at the seams
Take a close look at our community and what do you see:
unwed mothers,
absent fathers,
glorification of crime,
high dropout rates,
blissful ignorance,
Money worshipped as God,
immoral behavoir paraded as the norm
and so many more open sores
When will we start to heal from within
And become united as one phenomanal force
Not a hand holding kumbaya lovefest
But a joined front that empowers the community
The question of how to best tackle our faults has been often asked
But it is left unanswered like an incomplete assignment
We must first emphasize the value and necessity of education
and stress the benefits of individual initiative
That says I will pull my self up by bootstraps if I have to
Because we must learn to self-love and self-help
If we are to ever get beyond the insanity of today
We must take full ownership of our own destructive ways
Before we begin to fight that which seeks to keeps us all bound
Brothers and sister it time to get down to the business of healing us
Our very lives depend upon us removing the knife from our lifeline
Not a knife in the back but one that is held by our own hand
I dare you to step out and dare to be different then the next
Dare to be the hand that drops the knife first