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Writer's pictureMicah French

"Bootstrap" - by Micah French (2020)

Updated: Feb 18, 2021

Pull yourself up by your bootstrap you lazy n*gger

Pull your pants up, that’s why your problems get bigger

Be good like me, you’ll earn your place

Don't tell me it's harder because of your race

Nat Turner fought back, tried to break his chain

Led enslaved men and freed men in his campaign

They crushed them on Belmont, no mercy was shown

Slaughtered two for every one that died of their own

Juneteenth hallelujah, freedom recognized

Prayers had been answered, chance to live and to rise

40 acres and a mule, our people made whole

Then Lincoln was shot, and they kept what they stole

Pull yourself up by your bootstrap you lazy n*gger

Turn the music down, that’s why your problems get bigger

Be good like me, you’ll earn your place

Don't tell me it's harder because of your race

Built a home down in Greenwood, Black wealth could now grow

Through the Birth of a Nation, and that damn Jim Crow

Black Wall Street emerged, our place was now found

Then the Klan killed everybody, burned it to the ground

We fought world wars, the same fire in our eyes

Came home to a promise like other GIs

That new middle class, the country did shine

But we were denied, couldn’t cross that red line

Pull yourself up by your bootstrap you lazy n*gger

Don’t be so mad, that’s why your problems get bigger

Be good like me, you’ll earn your place

Don't tell me it's harder because of your race

We marched with a King that spoke of a Dream

Through sheer force of will that movement gained steam

With sit-ins and boycotts non-violence he prized

Till they killed him in Memphis in front of our eyes

Generations are lost in this fight to survive

A burden too great, with no room to thrive

Our vote is suppressed, our schools are the worst

And they jail all our men, if they don’t kill them first

Get your hands up you dangerous n*gger

Don’t make a move or I’ll pull this trigger

Get on the ground, you know your place

The last thing you’ll see is my smiling face

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