Still Enslaved

I had performed this poem at a Black History Month (BHM) event in October 2013. I love the first paragraph of this poem as it was inspired not only by the struggles of those with a different skin... but those who are considered 'different' (i.e. not accepted) by those who (wrongly) view themselves as superior because of others so called 'difference'. Different because of their accent, hair type/ still/ colour, gender, sexual orientation, weight/ size/ height and the list goes on and on and on...

Still Enslaved

We rose out of freedom

Yet we still walk these streets enslaved like modern day slaves

Shackled to the ball and chain of discrimination

Into a system that judges difference down the tip of its nose

We rose out of freedom

Yet the next generation have no idea where they come from

The land that their parents and grand-parents walked on

The real story that needs to be told across this nation

Its not all about us packed liked sardines on slave ships riding the rough cold seas

We rose out freedom

Yet we still frown at our own reflection

Unhappy with the image watching and wishing

Ourselves to be in a completely different skins

We rose out of freedom

Yet a sense of us and I has been lost in this diversity

Buried in the realms of multi culturalism

The negativity of the melting pot ideology

We need to be passing down our culture and history to the next generation

We rose out of freedom

Yet low self esteem is consuming our daughters

Unhappy with the kink in their hair and the black features that makes them

They are beautiful and they need to be told

They are beautiful

We rose out of freedom

Yet as a community we are dis-united

Diseased by divide and conquer are we

Fooled into believing we are better than the other are we

It is time to truly love your brothers and sisters

Because together we stand and divided we fall

We rose out of freedom

We rose out of freedom

And like Mayo Angelo once cried

Still we shall rise

Copyright © 2013 Sonneteer Articulates (aka Traysi Matthew, Traysi Speaks) 

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