Talk Show

"Can he rap?"
They were six men sitting at a maroon table in a tiny office.
"He can bring it, make you want to jump up and shake your fist and holler and all that stuff . . ."
"What's his plan?" one wantd to know.
"It ain' no question of a plan,"another answered.  "It's 'bout making them people think we must have some kind of plan or we wouldn't be asking them for money . .."
"He got any backing in our community   ?" one interrupted.
"Sho' he got some backing," the one who'd started the conversation said.  "In fact, even if he ain' he can make 'em think he got us backing . . ."

"I agree wit' that," the one who had asked the question said.  "In fact, we ain' never had no sho'nuff foundation plan.  We been marching and rioting and begging and threatening with these rapping leaders for over a hundred years and we still behind everbody in everything 'cept dying our hair blond and putting rings in our ears and noses and looking like two different fools at the same time . . . we still marching and rioting -- and now we done mixed the profiling and police brutality in the rapping . . .

"We got these anti-American folks all over the world supporting everything we say and don't know if we lying or not," one broke in.
"I bet if they woke up one morning and saw a thousand of us getting off airplanes with our suitcases and looking lost they wouldn't support that . . ." one said.
"Yes they will," another said.  "We'll jes play dumb on 'em like we do the white folks here and they'll take care of us."
"Jes tell the rapper leader to hit hard on that profiling and police brutality -- and we need to take a lot of them ig'nant young people wit' us . . ." one said.
"But they'll blow our peaceful front," another interrupted.  "They looks like what they is -- dumb thugs . . ."
"But they used to going to jail," another cut in. "The rapper leaders got to be free to speak for the masses.  Anythang anybody wants to know 'bout our people they come to us leaders.  We git all the glory for our people's progress . . . anyhow, it, after all, ain' nothing but a li'l spor't."