Initially, In the sixties when we assembled peacefully Nonviolently Fighting to be treated equally Needlessly, The powers that be In secrecy, Acted with us deceitfully, And the minority Was killed and arrested, in attempt to be Treated with decency. Centuries after the Emancipation Proclamation We had Brown vs the Board of Education Where segregation Was no longer constitutional in this nation Have a century later Why are minorities struggling with education Yet thriving when it comes to incarceration? Can somebody tell me what happened in between The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and year 2014 Martin Luther King Foresaw his own killing But the progression of the minority was unforeseen Shadowed my poverty and crime scenes As the Civil Rights movement careened, In an ocean of lies In the midst of a storm of injustices and inequalities The ship is capsized, The power of the people dies, As they disguise A new way to violate your rights Right in front of our eyes Capitalizing at the same time While more and more people of color become institutionalized. Because in the ghetto there is not equal protection clause, When youth are racially profiled and detained and arrested without probable cause. Hauling us into jail without pause. There is no due process, just a bunch of minorities being booked and processed Set up to end up behind penitentiary walls. Victims to ineffective counsel to the system we befall So as the incarceration rate rises and the gavel falls, Know That it’s no coincidence That since We were granted full rights as citizens That Blacks and Hispanics Make up the biggest difference Of people locked up in jails and prisons. The incarceration rate has increased 8 fold since The exodus Of being kept in ignorance And the inmate population reflects The vindictiveness Of an evil That would rather see us enslaved Then be treated as equal. Even when unarmed They see us as lethal. If it was up to them Being of color would be illegal. Instead they found a way to keep my people In poverty This is a reflection of a system without ethos. Teaching lies from K-12 So by the time we find out the truth We can careless to cause an upheaval. Therefore continuing in a cycle that perpetuates A false sense of identity As we assimilate Into a counterculture based On ignorance and hate. A stereotype the media portrays And exaggerates To manipulate The gullible, the ignorant and those that never graduate. Therefore anything they see on the screen They translate As reality when that is not the case. The education system backs percolates The same lies through what they educate. So as a minority being inferior begins to resonate When they Teach a history that passively aggressively discriminates. Romanticizing the brutal ways Of how Europeans got a hold of a place, Where Africans were exploited as slaves And millions upon millions were displaced. A genocide they efface Masqueraded by holidays Interlaced With patriotism to save face. Manifest destiny wasn’t God’s plan But of angel thrown out of grace That know we are all one race. But through false dictum The American people fall victim To the schism. Racism is the disease, stereotypes are the symptoms. An epidemic that has cost so many their freedom. The numbers speak for themselves Just look at the criminal system. Convicting minorities without skipping a beat At a fast rhythm. The sirens make up the melody The music brings in the income. As the caged bird sings But only making a crumb. Accustomed To the humdrum Of confinement. But it’s no conundrum That from the slums Is where these prisoners come From But like the Old Spiritual Negro “We Shall Overcome.”