when 'isms' collide
cultural assimilation ain't what it used to be;
no more fade to white.
i don't need beads and feathers anymore
i've always spoken a native tongue
and nowadays
i fill my gri-gri bag at Radio Shack.
i've made your world my own
but this is no hostile takeover in the name of
Afrocentrism;
we're just taking our share.
fear not the 'ism' - it doesn't define me,
i define it cause it ain't large enough.
it's not a protective barrier, it's a cul-de-sac
a red black & green pacifier dangling
from a gold chain; Afrocentrism is
a P C tarbaby waiting to entice
and entrap amateurs.
Afrocentrism crashes into Multiculturalism
and throws us all into cyberspace,
the new frontier, where a muezzin's call
to prayer fades
into a languid solo from Miles,
where a Baryshnikov leap flows into a
Michael Jordan 360 slam,
where gingham and kente weave
intricate new patterns,
where Picasso, James Joyce
and Jackson Pollock
become de-colonized.
Afrocentrism crashes into Multiculturalism
like atoms in a supercollider -
this is ground zero now, and it doesn't matter
what splits or fuses,
it doesn't matter what forms,
whether bagpipe blues or
gangster rap with a Baroque twist.
this is ground zero now,
omega becoming alpha.
this is the end of civilization as you know it.