Boys in Blue
Sure I know you!
You’re one of the Boys in Blue.
I’m a Negro.
You see me in the streets,
And are automatically suspicious.
Your glare is piercing
And felt from a mile away.
Stop and Frisk is clearly
The greatest law ever enacted,
Allowing you to harass
Any young minority person that you so choose,
Without any basis of
Reasonable suspicion
Of criminal activity.
That sure sounds like
Legalized racial profiling to me.
You see,
I don’t appreciate
Being stopped on my way
Home from work after a long day,
Or being approached for “double parking”
After I pull my car into a newly vacated spot,
And having the rights of my cousins and myself violated
By searching the car without a warrant.
Oh, you didn't think I knew that did you,
Mr. Officer?
What crime were we really guilty of?
Being three young Negroes.
And I don’t appreciate the countless acts
Against anyone deemed to have
Skin darker than what you see as “safe”,
For so many of them are just as innocent as myself.
You don’t know anything about us,
Yet you presume we have bad intentions;
Assume that we have no purpose,
When we have ambitions and goals,
And sometimes all the potential in the world.
You have treated us in ways
That have incited protests and riots.
It is this type of behavior,
Of systematic oppression,
That Marx would say justifies
A rebellious upheaval.
And what you don’t realize is,
One is coming
Much sooner than you know,
Unless power is checked,
And the man of color
Is no longer viewed as foe.
You’re one of the Boys in Blue.
I’m a Negro.
You see me in the streets,
And are automatically suspicious.
Your glare is piercing
And felt from a mile away.
Stop and Frisk is clearly
The greatest law ever enacted,
Allowing you to harass
Any young minority person that you so choose,
Without any basis of
Reasonable suspicion
Of criminal activity.
That sure sounds like
Legalized racial profiling to me.
You see,
I don’t appreciate
Being stopped on my way
Home from work after a long day,
Or being approached for “double parking”
After I pull my car into a newly vacated spot,
And having the rights of my cousins and myself violated
By searching the car without a warrant.
Oh, you didn't think I knew that did you,
Mr. Officer?
What crime were we really guilty of?
Being three young Negroes.
And I don’t appreciate the countless acts
Against anyone deemed to have
Skin darker than what you see as “safe”,
For so many of them are just as innocent as myself.
You don’t know anything about us,
Yet you presume we have bad intentions;
Assume that we have no purpose,
When we have ambitions and goals,
And sometimes all the potential in the world.
You have treated us in ways
That have incited protests and riots.
It is this type of behavior,
Of systematic oppression,
That Marx would say justifies
A rebellious upheaval.
And what you don’t realize is,
One is coming
Much sooner than you know,
Unless power is checked,
And the man of color
Is no longer viewed as foe.