WEBVTT

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I think I know this by heart.

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But I don't know, the tequila
might have different ideas.

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But OK.

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So this is my last piece.

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I want to say thank you to
the University of Arizona,

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I want to say thank you to
all of you for coming out.

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Thank you for your
temperatures, it's

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fucking ice cold in the Midwest.

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And thank you for all
of, all of, all of you

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who have helped me out here.

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Thank you, Logan.

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Thank you, Wendy.

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Thank you, Cybele.

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Where I sit down and sign books,
or just come and say, what up?

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If that's what
you want to be on.

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This is called "Tragicomedy
of the Black Boy Blues,"

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or "A Hip Hop Negrito," or
"The Boy Became Black at JFK."

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"Is the boy with
the umbrella worried

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who will protect him next?

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Is his skin the color
of his true love's here?

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Are umbrellas
totems or buildings?

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Is green a color or
an emotive state?

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Are the boys running behind
the Black boy laughing

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or just baring their teeth?

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Is it any different
whether they spit on him

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or soak him in gasoline?

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Say, wither.

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Say, the bath water went out
with the baby Say the baby,

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the Germans had to have had
something right wing, see?

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We were all just
billboards anyway.

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There is something absolutely
fearless about leaving

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your house in the
world and going abroad

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when you are Black
and ruled by nothing

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but fast twitch fibers and
the fear of standing still.

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When the instinct is
all faint, and dip sharp

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left to jab step, and full
sprint right split knuckle,

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and the rust of
blood in the cheek.

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If we are all to
be truthful, we're

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pretty sure the girl wants
nothing to do with us,

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but the Black boy does.

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If we are all to be
truthful, we can already

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smell his Black flesh burning.

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Can't you hear it?

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The crackle of the
skin, the smell of pork

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rind in the air,
the eyeball pop,

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the drop step rhythm
disappeared with the rope fibers

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in the morning air?

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Aren't we all just
standing around watching

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things fall from the sky
or burn into the ether?

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Where do Black boys
go when they fail?

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Where do Black boys
go when they succeed?

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Where do Black boys
go when they die

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when the skin is ashes to dust?

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Where do black boys go when they
feel the need to scale fences?

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You can only move
as fast as who's

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in front of you, that's
what the Black boy says.

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Unless, you carefully
slit the Achilles

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tendon of a motherfucker and
make him bleed to a halt.

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This is the leapfrog
dance in This is America.

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Black boy is waiting,
Black boy is waiting.

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What happens to the Black boy
if he just stands a still?

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And three times, we made
love on the banister

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of her father's condo.

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And three times, she
told me she loved me.

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And three times, she
emphasized the Black part.

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And three times,
her eyes were flat

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in the gray in the distance,
except when they were green.

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And three times, our sweat
curled into teardrops.

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And we licked every
sweat drop up together

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and laughed all the way
to the Million Man March.

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The way we love each
other is not healthy,

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the therapist is a predator.

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The Black boy knows this,
so doesn't want to go there.

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The way we love each other
stifles bodies into reason.

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She does not know
why he walks so

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close to the sides
of buildings, why

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he dresses like all the other
Black boys, why the pant sag,

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why the hat is pulled so low,
why he won't hang out downtown.

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All she knows is,
we won't love right,

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but the Black boy
fucks like a champion.

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Elvis Presley.

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Justin Timberlake.

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Kenny G. Vanilla Ice.

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Michael Bolton.

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The White Rapper reality show.

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To tell a woman you don't love
her when you're both naked

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is inconveniently honest,
not the place for it.

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If you are a Black boy,
it is the only place

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you can get away with it.

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Shiny sweat pooling
on your hip bone

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as you walk away from
the rubble of the bed.

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Say Black boy five times
fast and he will appear.

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Say inky-binky spider.

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Say the umbrella is
just an accessory.

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Say Stepin Fetchit was
a legitimate actor.

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Say America got it right once.

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Say Tuskegee, say
Emmett Till, say

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Pine Ridge, say Bay of Pigs,
say Michael Jackson's blood is

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on all our hands.

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The boy became black
at JFK, he does not

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know where he
belongs anymore, he

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hears shouts of his
tropical childhood,

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he listens for the sound
of kite tales in the wind.

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He is hip hop, he
owns a green umbrella,

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he's resistance music
and conflict diamonds.

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He's learning to
love his scars, he's

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making new scars of his
own, they are beautiful.

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Women flocked to the place
where his downbeat sits.

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he is blacker than ever,
he is blacker than ever, he

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is blacker than ever.

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And he likes it."

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Thank you, all.

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