WEBVTT

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This is little but here we go--

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this is "The Obama Hour."

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Since Obama ain't here.

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I try to beat
everybody to the punch.

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I don't take sides.

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I just-- Where is that thing?

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One of my friends dared
me to try Obama, you know.

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Try page 60.

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Yeah.

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[LAUGHING]

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Because I'm too cool to look
at the table of contents.

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Did you do that not looking?

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Maybe.

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Yeah.

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[LAUGHING]

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See me after the show,
I got a free gift.

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[LAUGHING]

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I know that kid.

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That's a cool kid.

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[LAUGHING]

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Yeah, here we go,
"The Obama Hour."

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The poem begins with an
F, but the F is slanted.

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"Finally, one of us is
properly positioned to run.

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By "us" I mean Black, by
"positioned" I mean White

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and by "run" I mean Race, and
it's varied speeds of darkness,

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the way "silver writes"
faster than revolution

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and the lit and darkening
skin of the sky.

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The triumphant
exasperation, though,

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belongs to the word
"finally" but it's

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slanted F signifying
relief, a "bout time"

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up from the reservoir
of coded sighs

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we make to mask time,
Colored People's Time,

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our well-known resistance to
the Romanized face of the clock.

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To discuss running, running
the country, a black man

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running, an African
running America,

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you must discuss Race, including
the difficult qualifying

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times between the theft of our
arrival and all hate crimes.

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Race as gift, as campaign
donation, and gifts matter.

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It's racist to erase Race--

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because "erase" means
Blackness, ethnic cleansing,

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get rid of the Blacks--

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and worse to hack off
history or any limb

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at anytime, except for
purposes of assimilation

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and modern design.

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In place of the usual
halo of numbers,

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orange balls and spindles.

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Lazy, often late for work, our
walk a discourse, shifting,

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like the unemployed shadow of
a brother leaning on a corner.

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But America prefers
Religion to Race

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and a clock has
disciples, hours, cuckoos

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and cock-a-doodle doos.

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The people "go to
sleep" and the people

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"wake up" to nature,
nations and denominations

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of, not the bedside duet
of alarm and digital glow."

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Thank you.

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