An Open Letter To Rappers Poem by Charmaine Forde

Dear Rappers,

I want my nieces and nephews to learn more about African American History via your music.
Most of the younger generation can recite every line from every rap song by Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Kanye, Drake, Snoop, Nas.


'The Freedom March' to Montgomery, from Alabama,
I'm sick and tired of hearing about your Baby Mama Drama.
I want to hear more about-
'I have a Dream' Dr. Martin Luther King speech, Aug 28th 1963,
And more of 'Bloody Sunday 1965'...
And about the many protestors who didn't make it out alive.
'Separate but Equal' Brown vs. Board of Education-
I'm tired of hearing about your million dollar vacations.
The Fourteenth Amendment,1954,
I want to hear more about 'The Scottsboro Four'
I want to hear more of 'The Emancipation Proclamation'in 1863,
I want to hear more about Stokely Carmichael, SNCC, and Mississippi.
I want to hear about 'The Ballot or the Bullet'- Malcolm X
I'm tired of hearing about your money and sex.
I want to hear more about the Civil Rights Bill,
I want to hear more about the lynching of Emmitt Till
I want to hear more about 'The Montgomery Bus Boycott',
I want to hear more about that free slave name 'Dred Scott'

I want to learn more about 'Crispus Attucks' and Boyce,
I don't want to hear about your Bugatti's and your Rolls Royce.
I want to hear about 'The 1850 Compromise',
Maya Angelous's readings-'And still I rise?
I want to hear about - April 30th
'The Louisiana Purchase' in 1803, and
By 1810, how 75% of slaves in Delaware were free.
I want to hear more about 'The Georgia Infirmary'
I am tired of hearing about Guns and Penitentiaries.
Tell me more about Oberlin College, in 1860
Where a third of Blacks got their knowledge
Tell me more about '40 acres and a mule.'
Let rap music keep our children in school.
Educate them about 'Pap Singleton' and 'Adams', who left For Kansas in 1879,
instead of rapping about your money and crime.
I want to hear about- Plessy vs Fergusson in 1896,
Instead of talking about who owns 'The Lakers' and who owns 'The Nicks'.
Educate them about the 'Grandfather clause'
Michelle Alexander and 'The New Jim Crow' Laws

Charmaine J. Forde © 2014