I�m not giving up my green and grits or saying �Girlll� and putting my hands on my hips. You see�Life for me ain�t been no crystal stair and I�m not giving up Rosa Parks,
Fannie Lou Hammer, Mary McCleod Bethune, Sojourner Truth, Madame C.J Walker, Toni Morrison or Dr. Maya Angelo, �cause you see, I�m phenomenal woman and
I�m not giving my black back!
I�m not giving up my crown, waves, braids, curls, locks, kinks, scarves or Muslim garb. I�m not giving up sitting in Ma�s kitchen eating peach cobbler or sweet potato pie and
hearing her ask me, �how you doing baby?�
I�m not giving up on, �you Buy, We Fry� on Fridays, or Bar-B-Ques on Saturdays, playing Bid Whist and slamming those dominoes.
I�m not giving back Harriet Tubman�s train, Soul Train, Coltrane or The Midnight Train to Georgia. Now, you can meet me at the function, at the junction but I still won�t
give up B.B King, The Whispers, Fancy Ms. Nancy, Lena Horne, the Philadelphia Sound, Motown or the Temptations, �Cause you see, it�s the way we do the things we do�,
like building the pyramids that still stand made by our forefathers hands where the diamonds, oil, silver and gold are buried in our rich dark land.
I�m not giving my black back!
I'm happy being nappy, with my wide hips and wide nose and rich melanin in my skin. I love putting lotion on my ashy legs. Oh!, I�m happy being nappy and being in the
skin that I�m in. I won�t deny or forget my ancestors who lay in a wet grave the bottom of the sea in the middle passage of the slave trade.
And I won�t give up on our youth today who still need a way made. I won�t give back Miles, even though he didn�t smile. I won�t give back Marvin Gaye, Richard Pryor,
Phyllis Hyman, Billie Holiday or Billy Eckstein, Jackie Robinson or Jackie Wilson.
I won�t give back the Electric Slide, Alvin Ailey, Bojangles or Debbie Allen. You�d think I�d give up reading my Jet, Ebony, Essence, Emerge, Black Enterprise, Heart & Soul,
or Upscale Magazines? For we are a colorful people. Like Curtis Mayfield sang, we are people that are �darker than blue� We are Honey, Cinnamon, Mahogany and Chocolate.
We are Redd Fox, James Brown and Barry White. The Mothers of church dressed in white, The Color Purple, the Lady who Sings the Blues and we are Al Green with love
and Happiness.
Oh, NO�I�m not giving my black back!
I�m not giving back Maxine (Waters), Martin, Medgar, Malcolm, Mandela, Marley, Marcus, Muhammad Ali, Michael (Jordan) or the Million Man March.
I'M NOT GIVING MY BLACK BACK!!!
Author Unknown
