Discrimination

At our retreat this past summer the dance workshop students chose to incorporate spoken word into their final showcase. Concerned about discrimination, 14-year-old TreAllen wrote and performed this powerful piece that moved me (Jacqueline, Founding Director) to tears:

It starts with racist rednecks in the streets
Them coming at us is what I call black boy defeats
Harming us and marking the world with racist streaks
And I don’t get how we let it right the highest of peaks

All I’m saying is we could end this
Cause if not, we could make hatred endless
I got Drizzy backing me up, it go zero to a hundred real quick
You seen the four little girls and Trayvon Martin that racist people kill quick

And mama said be proud of my skin
Maybe they’ll be proud of my skin too, but I’m wondering when
They making kids wish they skin would lighten like Mike Jackson
Got me stinging – they tighten they purse when they see my black skin

And, G, they think we be skull cracking
See, now little black kids stuck hiding and masking

Ya’ know I don’t like it at all, G
They say King’s dream is done, but we far from free
I know this all seems fine
But this I can’t stand dealing with these problems in my mind
Let’s quit this before we get bullets in the air
Turning this anger into national warfare
Find our land of liberty into a warzone nation
And change this ‘cuz we don’t need no land of discrimination

- TreAllen

14yo Youth Activist from Minneapolis MN