Now they say that my people and I walk around like we got a chip on our shoulders. Damn straight. We are pissed! See our fuller lips, darker eyes, and abundance of melanin never seem to give us that head start. It's never that springboard.
But what do we do? I know damn straight we don't fight the system….no, see now we stand outside it.
We don't engage in the real conversations of power, instead, we transform into those menacing problems that the powers-that-be have to solve. See what we actually do is give them more purpose. What with their operation tridents and their ghetto redevelopment schemes.
Now, when the call has come upon us to stand up and not just be counted, but be the ones who do the counting, what do we do? We rep! We know how to rep like no other! Me and my people, we love to do it. We rep London! Then we sub- divide into north, south, east and west until talk of my block and my street become the plural common denominators of many groups amongst what should be, one people. We shy away from the real battle of the real opponent - adversity: and turn brother against brother in the simple fights with hollow victories. Instead of growing in wisdom we want to jam. As if our parents and parents' parents crossed waters, some forcefully, to give you and I the opportunity to… jam on road: cutting off our roots, acting like they only extend as far as these blocks and these streets.
Then we open our mouth and talk about THE MAN holding us back. THE SCHOOLS that don't teach us. THE FEDS putting us in pen and THE BOSS that won't hire us. And we somehow think that our little rebellions, are us fighting the MAN, the SCHOOLS, the FEDS and the BOSS. No, its like I said, it gives them that elevated sense of purpose. The Man, whoever he is, has someone to feel above; schools have someone to fail; feds have someone to jail and the boss has someone to reject.
No, we didn't get that head start, but instead of propelling forwards, some of us are bussing the back stroke, stuck being a sub- category; the people that don't count.
Not me! See I know that the fight with THE MAN, is going to happen in his language, so I went to school and I learned it. Tell me, what do the feds need to know my face for? And Trust me I am giving Mr Bossman every reason to hire me, and when he doesn't, he gives me purpose! To show him up as the foolish prejudiced incompetent that he is.
It is here, and not on road or on your ends, where the real battle happens, and frontline soldiers need only be armed with an education, some common sense and a determined heart!
Sometimes, it's like we don't know where we are. Education and common sense are abundantly available, and the determined heart should have come all-inclusive with that chip on our shoulders.
Yeah, education, legit work, 9-5 is all long. But being broke, ignorant and undercover is longer! And the longer that realisation takes to hit home, the longer it will take for the real battle to commence.
Then working against the grain, we've got various Kanye's preaching the life of the College dropout. Telling tales about how degrees don't equal p's. But can we really neglect to realise that for every 50 cent, there is a million 49 and 48 cents that didn't quite make it. Kanye's money does not put food in mine or your belly and it does very little to elevate a whole people. That mission: it comes down to you and me. We have to be that change that we want to see in the world.
Don't confuse my message. I'm not saying that dreams of artistic fame are not worthwhile. I'm saying, don't let that be your only dream because you think that no others are possible.
I'm saying that we need to face our real social problems and not create new ones with each other.
I'm saying if you feel placed lower than others, you elevate your position, look eye to eye at your oppressor and fight him on a level playing field.
And I'm saying that we cannot afford to turn that chip on our shoulders into the driving force that destroys us. It must be the wound that propels us.
And I for one, refuse to let a chip, be the damage that shatters the whole!
Words by Tracey Duodu
