My Real MLK Day post

My Real MLK Day post

Labels: My life / Poetry

So the other day I was clowning, (for the record I didn't go to the club last night...LOL) but I wanted to post something that was close to my heart as well.

We all have those teachers, that no matter how old you get, you always remember them, and the way they were able to cut threw all the bull to really teach you something. One teacher for me that was able to do this was Erik Young. I remember people killing to be able to take his class in high school. Literally there was a waiting list. I don't even remember if the class was an African American Literature class or a Creative Writing class, but taking his class in my Junior year really took my writing and thinking process to another level.

The thing I loved most about him was the fact that he shared his own writing. I was recently going threw some old stuff I had written and came across a poem of his that I kept from the class. Wanna here it, here it go:

MLK...MLK... Making Life Kinetic MLK...MLK...

They say keep it real, but they have not kept it real about you.
We were told some things, but only a few.
You did much more than dream.
And you were a vital part of a valuable team.

Dr. King, you were a minuser, an activist, and a scholar.
But, you did more than Hallelujah and Hollar.
And you were not overtaken by the powerful dollar.
You had potential, but your energy was kinetic.
It's a shame that textbooks portray you as simply sympathetic.
One who believed in wishing and waiting.
Your letters seem to advocate intellectual agitating.
Moving, shaking, and risk taking.
Following in the foot steps of Ghandi and Douglass.
Dr. King in your own way, you definitely brought the ruckus.
Some may call it civil disobedience. Your fight had many ingredients.
But most textbooks don't tell. Dr. King, they place you in a shadow shell. (2x)
Just a dream in a sleepy spell.

Many textbooks paint your enemies as only a few.
Mean people down with Southern crew.
But like my man Fat Albert would say, Hey! Hey! Hey!
You had other enemies besides the KKK!
There were many, many, more,
who abhored and deplored the social changes you stood for.
One group was the FBI, that's for sure.
J. Edgar Hoover tried to make you feel like a loser.
The FBi hugged your hotel room, and tapped your telephone.
Some of the tapes revealed you had another woman sitting on your throne.
But your phenomenal wife Coretta, who truly a trendsetter.
Did not submit to the FBI's tapes and letters.
Now Dr. King, I am sure Coretta jacked you u in private.
But she never made her anger public.
Sister Coretta was determined not to break.
Nor did she expose her business on Jerry springer or Ricki Lake.
Coretta kept the problem on the low, you know quiet
The FBI was hoping for a disastrous divorce, but Coretta would not buy it. (2x)

Dr. King, most textbooks do not present your entire scope
Think of the many dilemmas, you had to cope.
With lynching, flinching, drenching in blood, smoke and hatred.
Your method of fighting in completely underrated.
You stood for freedom, justice, and equality, with a Kingly calm.
You were anti-bomb, disapproved of napalm,
and vehemently opposed to Vietnam.
Dr. King, you stood for, and with the poor. Also assisted in raising your four.
Offspring, along with your wife, Coretta Scott King.

Dr. King, you were one of the many freedom fighters, preachers,
Teachers, trendsetters and justice seekers.
All of these fighters had strength, and self-determination.
Some of them had speeches, others had guns.
Why don't textbooks portray our other Black leaders as charms?
Why did black with guns raise alarms?
After all, Amendment 2 gives you the right to bear arms.
Oh, that's right, some amendments, laws and rights are not for us.
So why cause a fuss. Why become angry and ask how come?
That's why textbooks told us to hate the Panthers, Stokley, & Malcolm. (2x)

And Dr. King in the U.S. did not like many of your views very well.
Could that be why they made your life hell, by throwing you in a cell.
Not wanting you to excl. Nevertheless, in 1964, you went on to earn the Nobel
Peace Prize. But was there Peace before your eyes?
Maybe I missed it. Did you search?
How about 4 blak girls bombed in a church.
Forget that. NEVER. How about the assassinations of Malcolm and Medgar? (2x)
Speaking of ASSASSINATION. 2 asses 1 nation. 2 asses 1 nation.
Profanities are not what I'm yelling. I'm only telling.
You a way to remember the meaning and spelling.
2 asses 1 nation. James Earl Ray may have been one, but he did not act alone
Who were the other asses? mabe the people who tapped the phone.

What should be known to us is clear. April 4, 1968, the month, day, and year.
The emphasis we see, was on Memphis Tennessee.
But the freedom thought was not cut short.
The battle did not come to a halt. We have to keep moving. If not it's our fault. (2x)
Stop sitting back and waiting for a box of M & M's to come.
Muhammad, Marcus, Mary McCloud, Mandela, Mary Church, Malcolm
USE ATTRIBUTES FROM ALL OF THEM...GET IT.
WHAT THEY DID YOU CAN TOO... IT'S GENETIC.
MAKE YOUR POTENTIAL ENERGY...KINETIC.




This really meant a lot to me back in high school. He was definitely one of my favorite teachers back then.

Sidebar : If anyone knows where Mr. Erik Young is I would love to talk to him. He was a young black teacher at the time, probably in his late 20's. He only taught at Wilson Magnet High School in Rochester, NY for 2 years and then I believe he moved to Philly because he got engaged. I would love to see what he is doing now. I definitely thought by now that he would be something like Michael Eric Dyson, but it seems like he has fell off the face of the earth.