Chapter 10, pages 191-194 of MK Asantes bestselling book, ITS BIGGER THAN HIP-HOP, contains what is unarguably one of the most important written works of our time. It is a poem titled Two Sets of Notes. I have only quoted a brief excerpt, and I encourage you all to get yourselves a copy of the book: ...Because their new schools of thought Are merely our histories borrowed And they label me militant and Black national radical Trying to put my learning process on sabbatical But I don’t apologise Instead I spit truth into the whites of eyes infected by White lies Then they even try to get me to see their point of view from a brother that looks like me But that brother don’t walk like me, talk like me or act like me And that brother started running when I asked if he was Black like me Mastering their thoughts and forgetting our own And we wonder why we always feel alone From the media to academia- hanging brothers like coats And in their schools I always take two sets of notes One set to ace the test and one set I call the truth And when I find historical contradictions I use the first set as proof Proof that Black youths’ mind are being polluted, convoluted, diluted and not culturally rooted in anything - except the Western massacre And most of us are scared of Africa, We view our mother’s land through the eyes of David Hume and Immanuel Kant Well, Immanuel kan’t tell me anything about a land he’s never seen A land rich with history, beautiful kings and queens They’ll have you believe other wise Their history is built on high-rise lies The pyramids were completed before Greece or Rome were conceptualised Then they’ll claim the Egyptians’ race was a mystery You tell them to read Herodotus Book II of the histories It cannot be any clearer! Black children, look in the mirror You are the reflection of divinity Don’t let them fool you with selective memory Walk high, listen to the elder who spoke Black students, Always take two sets of notes...
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 23:28:50 +0000
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