I’m black
Assumed to be high on crack
With my jeans at my knees
You act like I have a disease
You call me a thug
Saying I go around and mug
White people as they pass
Irrespective of my class
You call the police
To seize
Me when I walk by
Being sly
When you say you feel threatened
forgetting to mention
The reason for your unease
And you’re thinking I am sleaze
Because you’re listening to racists
And fascists
Who thinks being black is the offence
Always expecting me to mount a defence
Against your insecurities about the way I look
Constantly pointing at me as the crook
When I walk by not paying you no mind
You reply in an unkind
Manner to indicate that I am a thug
Then simply shrug
Your shoulders when police abuse me
By listening to you instead of letting me be
Myself in whatever I choose to wear
Not meant to scare
Anyone
But you assume I’m on the run
When you call me gangster and thug
Seeing my black face on a mug
Shot of a wanted person
Never wanting to learn the lesson
That the hate you give
Makes it dangerous for me to live
To breath, to walk, to dance, to speak
Expecting me to remain weak
When I am confronted by your racism
And fascism
That you call fear
Whenever I am near
You or your kind
Even if I pay no mind
To the looks and stares, you give
Making it impossible for me to live
In peace and quiet
Instead, you incite a riot
A litany of police wishing to kill
Me and my people still.
A thug you say I am
Because you don’t give a damn
About my life based on my skin colour
But would rather
Scream and act
As if you’re being attacked
My way of dress
Was never designed to impress
You, but is instead
If you had read
A resistance to being targeted when you look at my face
Then assuming I am bad based on my race.
T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E
The
Hate
U
Give
Little
Innocents
F*cks
Everything
-Tupac
