This is the fourth and final poem of  my spoken word album called, “The Light of Education.” I hope you enjoy!

Transcript:

Education is a light

A light that beams upon you and me

A light that lights the way to incomparable success, and a little bit of distress

Nevertheless, education is a light

A light that has the power to propel someone out of poverty and darkness with the simple tools of a pencil, a teacher, and a book

A pencil, a teacher, and a book, seems pretty simple right?

But why is it that some have to fight to attain the same educational rights as the rest of us?

Namely, those who look like me

Those who have a darker complexion and so they learn a very important lesson early on: Education is power, but you mustn’t fall into the false deception that everything is easy.

Those words were the soundtrack to my childhood and those of many of us here today, I’m sure

Year after year, though, as my mother repeated those words incessantly, they began to become utterly clear

I started to see the kids in remedial classes were predominantly students of color

And although they could do more, their light was only dimmed because somehow their future was already secure

Somehow they were already predetermined to fail and not go to high places like Yale.

And so they had to make their own trail and tread and trek on that trail

But even then, the odds were stacked against them

Because historically students of color are suspended and expelled at much higher rates as if they are just dispensable

And even if they did all of the hard work to get there, on graduation day, they do not see many of their same peers there

Because historically students of color graduate at lower rates

Which means they don’t go home with a big smile on their face so their mothers can display their only sign of hope next to the box of childhood memories

No, instead they turn to the only things they know, which according to everyone is nothing

So they go down a very dark road that leads to incarceration, medication, depression, and utter evasion

And they can’t help but wonder if it was all because of racial discrmication within schools

So, yes, education is a light, with that I don’t disagree, but why is it that students who look like me suffer so very harshly?