Convicted Innocence

I can tell by how you look at me

When I walk by you clinch up tight

And don’t let it be a group of us

And God forbid it be a dark night

Automatically I want what you have

And nothing about us seems right

But if you ever looked past my dark

You would see that I can be the light

I have dreams like Martin King Jr.

For all people regardless of color

But when I ride through your neighborhood

You’re calling for the DT Undercover

I have green money just like you

Yet you follow me around your stores

If you always think I’m about to steal

Why would I even shop there any more

 Yes I may wear a hooded shirt at times

But it’s cold and who wants to get sick

Somehow that makes me a suspect person

That turns you into the racist prick

I signed up to serve my country

Just like millions of them before me

But the second I take off my uniform

It’s a feeling of being stuck in purgatory

I always seem to perfectly fit the profile

Of the wanted man on the nightly news

It’s pretty hard to argue mistaken identity

When you always see the red & blues

I’m an educated American Black Man

Who’s worked hard for everything I got

But if it was I with a hoodie and AZ Tea

Could I have been the one who was shot?