"The Dilemma of Success"

Being a man in America gives me access to power.
Being a black man in America gives me unwanted fear.
People fear me, and I fear them, so I meet strangers and encounter danger.
When black men are seen as threats America gets trigger happy.
I keep history in mind and make myself more palatable, more family friendly, more WHITE.
So I exchange slang for language more tame, leaving a bitter aftertaste.
Selling myself for limited success.
Unless, you spend your life making change through entertaining the lighter shade.
Wearing jerseys, telling stories, making millions.
And if you're great, they'll tell your story.
Glory can be yours.

But.
If I don't make it in entertainment, what's left for me?
Being in an office where I'm hired for diversity?
Why aspire to be profiled by clients, and misunderstood by colleagues?
I don't need a degree to be an outcast.
Corporate America wants my color not my culture.
So hoop dreams are my way of combining dignity and wealth, authenticity and occupation, self-respect and self-determination.
Making it big in a sport, in music, or on the screen is a one in a million chance.
Working a 9-5 for several decades, where I'm tolerated rather than embraced, is an everyday torment.
With broken dreams from my childhood and unmet expectations in my present, I pray the future holds a third option for me.