Your Sista?

Am I not your sista?
My skin is white, my mind is white
My thoughts are white, my life is white
You look to me and say, hey white girl
Am I not your sista?
I look to you and say, what up brotha?
Eyes flash surrounded by night
Brotha?, you are not my sista, white girl
You are different, outside, away and gone
Removed from my world, my pain, my hope, my strain
You are not my sista, white girl
On the outside looking in I see, chicken
I see skin, ghetto lives and wasted power
I see thought and truth, respect and loneliness
I see colors and guns and hate
I see me in your skin
I see the dark flesh fold about my body
I see my hair curl and fro
I see my eyes deepen, heavy minded
Slated with your skin now I see
I see a blessing, God’s light on me
I see the world, the small ringing world
I see hopes on rocks, rejoicing prayer
I see territory, love and effort
I see trials and triumph, weakness
I see black men as my men, just men
I see the white man, outside, away and gone
Am I not your sista?
No, I have a white soul
Skin does not change me
I am a forbidden sista
Pushed away - to white to be right
Left alone in suburbia
Hawking businessmen for a dime a day
Sitting quietly on the street, waiting
Empty pockets and drug habits
Mom is a janitor, dad’s a deadbeat
Here’s the down beat
I see you, I see me, I see the light of God in us as one
Mayonnaise and Chocolate nasty sandwich
Or say Oreo, no, black outside with a white soul
I say to white to be part of the click, the gang, the fight, the night
I say to white for you, for me, for the world?
My skin defines me? Does your skin define you?
Yes, we let sight make out judgments, not our minds
I feel brotha; I feel that once long history of us as one
Call us Human, souls, thoughts, heart; say I am your sista
I am in your world, your life, your pain
I am here rejoicing God, with you, near you, by you
I am white and pushing, pulling, pressing the issue
Am I not your sista?
Call me Honkey, white trash, KKK, Call me hater
I say no. White this skin may be but I have a soul of gold
Gold, mine and yours, god's shining glory to the universe
Shine our souls, our spirit, our joined hands
Unite this golden birth of light and power
I say Brotha I am your sista
Basted in whitewash but truth lies here to
Pain and struggle and strife, my white life
I felt the white man
Pushing, pulling, prying me outside, away and gone
I say stop the ringing lives of white vs. black
Color vs. Color, gun vs. gun, beat the stereotype
Ply it to your will, use it, abuse it, redo it
Hell I blew it
Look at it here this Honkey on stage speaking of black man’s rage
And she wants to be my sista?
I know not your life of color and Jell-O
I say I have color too, not white but tan, scorched
Sun darken my skin, deliver me from my white prison
Make me who I want to be, give me color
Make me a part of the clever parade of beautiful color
Shine the light through the dark man’s eyes
I say no, why does my skin have to match what does not matter
My mind is there, listening waiting, praying, guiding, seeing
I see you black man, brown woman, yellow child
I see my white skin and I say with God here, right here
I take pride not in my genetics or history,
I am prideful god made me
Made me like you here, beating, throbbing, animal passion
Clear soon to be understood, I stand
I stand up for my self, my love, my power, my family, my race
Yes, I stand up here in this room with every black face
And say I stand for my race, the race, the only place of grace
God place my heart into their eyes tonight, let them see me
Here standing with arms here to embrace my race, our race, the race
Racing, pacing, tracing lives of human passion,
Bring me that color, that trade
I stand here your sista, your race the only race
The Human place of standing in god eyes
Our blessed eyes of humanity and foretold peace
Here I stand your sista, the white sista of the Human race
Race to be one in God’s place, the Human race of heart and hope
The black hole of enmity and place, I am the human race
Am I not your sista?