Transparent Techknowledgy

Transparent Techknowledgy

Many blacks think technology is white so let me give you the grey version

Textbooks with no positive mention of your race aint encouragin,

I stay searchin and I’m getting hot like a Texas Turban

The reason this information aint there is, well, quite disturbin

This is urgent, I don’t wanna just be tall dark and, urban

Or associated with basketball and aids like Magic Johnson, or Earvin

But never for learnin, or makin light from an electrical current

We stay anonymous like a lost and found item turned in

This image is burned in and it’s getting oh so dark

Cause we don’t see the automatic gear shift that transported Rosa Parks

We don’t see the black man that made the IBM computer

And you won’t learn about the first Universities in Africa from no tutor

What about the door knob the thermostat the air conditioning, yes!

Although they say it’s a white game we still made up chess

The golf tee, gas mask, sprinkler and lawn mower

We even created that pump action super soaker

And WE made that guitar that always got you hummin

Where would eye surgery be without that one strong black woman

I wanna, embrace a light bulb, kiss my computer and dap my cell phone

I’d rather hear about them than people tell me I’m jail prone

So every time you taste peanut butter, sharpen a pencil, or hop yo lazy black ass in an elevator

Just take a moment of yo time to thank the black creator

And every time school or work starts to get hard again

Reach back to your roots and put the I Can in African

The etymology of Technology, teach knowledge to me

My momma told me it aint no way Imma reach college wit a C

Even though at times you’re a black dot in a snow storm

Each one teach one until black people in technology is the norm

Even if I have to bridge this infamous digital divide

With my 2 arms 2 legs 1 brain and my pride

I will… not fail or lose sight of my goal n

Let my role models or heritage get stolen

In between Kobe and MJ I want to hear about somebody smarter

When I hear George Washington, I follow it with Carver

A wise man hears one word, and understands two

But what kind of wise men do our children look up to

Who am I? Just a black kid who loves 1’s and zeros

But if I die, who will be my son’s hero?

-Kumi Rauf

© 2005

http://www.becauseimblack.com