mad men walk down wall street.

mad men drive down park.

some shoot at their targets,

far away in the dark.

mad men have mistresses.

mad men have affairs.

others, however,

will kill you right there.

mad men work on madison,

mad men have a smoke,

some men are mad men,

that will kill when provoked.

mad men create advertisements

mad men bring home big bucks.

but the wrong ones will you shoot you,

if you’re out of luck.

mad men have families,

mad men love their wives.

but the crazy ones really

just love taking lives.

mad men are normal,

mad men are sane.

but the shooters, the killers

have gone ’gainst the grain.

mad men are not over,

they will have won,

if we give them the weapon,

and hand them their gun.

think now on how racism is not a natural concept;

how it exists purely because we (you) allow it to.

think now on how if many years ago, your ancestors had not taken humans from their land, gathered them like crops from a field, only to place them in fields working long days and longer nights, that four hundred years later we wouldn't be standing here today, scared of the cops meant to protect us; that we wouldn't have been subjected to living our lives enslaved; we would not have had to endure the oppression of segregated living; we would not have to live with the knowledge that still today, we cannot succeed because of the disadvantages you have consistently imposed upon us.

think now on how you still see us as subpar, inferior; our dark skin, wide noses, coal-black eyes; our matted hair, our thick lips, our thicker thighs.

think now on how you chase after these features within your own race, but can't seem to appreciate it on the people's whose culture you reap from.

think now on how you've made black people (and black women) feel ugly, unseen, unwanted.

think now on how you've pressured us into making our skin lighter, our noses slimmer, our beautiful, natural, gravity-defying hair straighter, burnt to a crisp to satisfy the beauty standards that you established.

think now on how though we are now considered equal, our history has disadvantaged us and we have to work twice as hard to get just as far.

think now on how equality is not the same as equity.

think now on all those who have suffered and died at your hands; all those who have tried and failed to please your standards; all those who have been stuck in a corrupt system that they cannot get out of, because they are not given the tools to do so; think now on all those who have been whipped, and branded and lynced, and worked like a mule; and put into choke holds; and shot.

think now on how none of these people, our people, my people,

did nothing wrong.