Can you stand trial?
Before i reach my verdict,
Does the Negro have anything to say on his behalf?
Yes your honor...
I never stole a single thing
in all my years on earth.
But I know of one -- a thief to his heart --
who's been that way since birth.
He traveled the seas to faraway lands;
reached a beautiful nation.
He saw how advanced my people were and
attempted to destroy our foundation.
He captured my ancestors one by one.
They put up an ardent fight.
His weapons were overpowering --
turned Kings into slaves overnight.
He robbed my home of its riches and gold --
stripped the Motherland bare.
He altered my history, assumed the throne --
as if i was never there.
He shipped me over to his homeland,
the journey was of no great ease.
Millions of us never made it across --
unaccustomed to germs and disease.
I tried to escape his evil grasp
but where was i to go?
Thousands of miles from my home--
life was filled with woe.
He stripped me of my heritage,
replaced it with his own.
He made me a mere peasant
fit to serve his mighty throne.
While I worked the fields,
picking cotton and hauling sacks,
He raped my mother, my sister, my wife --
I'll never forgive him for that.
I lived a life of hell on earth,
fallen prey to all his lies.
But yet I possess an invincible pride;
I survived and still I rise.
A thief, a rapist, a devil he is --
portraying a self-proclaimed God.
But it is I who must stand trial,
I find this rather odd?
I've never committed a single crime.
The real culprit is still at large.
But I'll confess, I'm a proud Black man --
for this, I'm guilty as charged