What’s up my Niggas?
Why is it comfortable to say?
No matter what poets tell us
The young people continue to greet each other this way.
.
It’s like a word that we’ve brought with us
That is in our vernacular
It’s like words embedded in us
So personal and insular
.
There is something so powerful about us
We teach the rest of the world what to wear and say
Could we be those Kings and Priests;
Revelation talks about, here in our modern day?
.
It’s Hebrew words like Amen and Hallelujah
Spilled over into everyone’s culture
Words the rest of the world uses
Isn’t that spectacular?
.
For centuries our ancestors prayed
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be Done
Now upon us, “Be unafraid”
The world must succumb!
.
Kufi prayer caps are now ‘Do- rags’
Rolled up and tucked under
Snug, worn above your brow
Now we know. “It’s no wonder?!”.
.
African Buba shirts or Jellabiya
Have been translated into huge T’s
With the hem below your buttocks
And just below the elbow is the end of your sleeve.
.
It’s Hammer pants and low crotch baggy pants
Those ARE our African garb.
It’s embroidery on your leather jacket
To luxuriate no day in particular.
.
Nigger, Nigga, Niggaz, Niggas, Negus
N-E-G-U-S
Is an Ethiopian Biblical word for an Emperor:
“All you Niggaz get on the boat!”
The tone was said to cause furor.
.
When you hear youth using the ‘N’ word
Tell them what it means
They are greeting each other, even if they don’t know it;
Telling each other they are Kings.
