The American public school system was my educator for thirteen years.  American life has been my educator for twenty-eight years.  The lessons I learned in life far out way my schooling. 

     In life I learned who I am and what I stand for.  In school, I learned what they wanted me to know, their views of opinions of me.  They gave me their dream to believe in, and their vision to strive for. I was considered a “safe” black, and for them that was cool. All they had to offer me was “safe” black His-tory.  However when I realized the value of my education in school compared to that in life, I awoke.  It was then that I began to see, hear, think, talk, and be myself.

     I moved from the realm of a  “safe” black to a dangerous nigga, their worst nightmare.  I could talk the talk and walk the walk, but I would not do their dance.  Though no crime I had commited, I was just as deadly as any murder they had locked in prison.  Through awareness of self I realized that the prison they had placed my mind in was just as bad as a physical one, thus why I was deemed dangerous.  I began to question that which they told me. I rejected their views of blacks and me in general.  I became dangerous because no matter what they tried to spoon-feed me, I refused.  Their food could no longer sustain me.  I was no longer satisfied with their table scraps.  The desire to sup at their table had left me.  To be among them, or to be accepted by them no longer mattered. 

     I had become a black woman with my own identity and conscious.  Their ideology could no longer make me nor break me.  .  That which contaminated me I refused.  I realized that I am a strong, proud, beautiful black woman.  They cannot, won't, and shall not chain me again.