I'm Not Giving My Black Back! I'm not giving up my greens or my grits or saying "girl" and putting my hands on my hips. You see...Life for me ain't been no crystal stair and I'm not giving up Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hammer, Mary McLeod Bethune, Sojourner Truth, Madame C J. Walker, Toni Morrison, or Dr. Maya Angelou, 'cause you see, I am a phenomenal woman and I'm not giving my black back.
I'm not giving up my crown, waves, braids, curls, locks, kinks or scarves. I'm not giving up sitting in Ma's kitchen eating peach cobbler or sweet potato pie and hearing her ask me, "How you doing baby"?
I'm not giving up going to "You Buy, We Fry" on Fridays, or barbeques on Saturday playing bid whist, spades and slammin' those dominoes. I'm not giving back Harriet Tubman's train, Soul Train, Coltrane or the midnight train to Georgia. Now, you can meet me at the function at the junction but I still won't give up B.B. King, the Whispers, Fancy Ms. Nancy, Lena Horne, the Philadelphia Sound, Motown or the Temptations.
Cause you see, it's the way we do the things we do, like building the pyramids that still stand made by our forefathers' hands where the diamonds, oil, silver and gold are buried in our rich dark land.
I'm not giving my black back! I'm happy being happy with my wide hips and my wide nose and the rich melanin in my skin. I love putting lotion on my ashy legs.
Oh, I'm happy being nappy and being in the skin that I'm in. I won't deny or forget my ancestors who lay in a wet grave at the bottom of the sea in the Middle Passage from slave trade.
And I won't give up on our youth of today who still need a way made. I won't give back Miles even though he didn't smile. I won't give back Marvin Gaye, Richard Pryor, Phyllis Hyman, Billie Holiday or Billy Eckstein, Jackie Robinson or Jackie Wilson.
I won't give back the Electric Slide, Alvin Ailey, Bojangles or Debbie Allen. You think I'd give up reading my Jet, Ebony, Essence, Emerge, Black Enterprise, Heart and Soul or Upscale magazines? For we are a colorful people. Like Curtis Mayfield sang, we are a people that are "darker than blue." We are honey, cinnamon, mahogany and chocolate. We are REDD Fox, James BROWN, Barry WHITE, The Mothers of the Church dressed in WHITE, The Color PURPLE, the Lady Who Sings the BLUES and we are Al GREEN with love and happiness. Oh, NO... I'm not giving my black back!
I'm not giving back Maxine (Waters), Martin, Medgar, Malcolm, Mandela, Marley, Marcus, Muhammad Ali, the Michaels, Majic or the Million Man March. I'm not giving my black back. Join me in lifting up the black woman's spirit. Find a black woman and send this to her. Enjoy.
Don't cry because it's over, Smile because it happened" "All students can fly, some need a longer runway." Author Unknown
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