I want to know why
I can't escape the four walls that are my mind
I was taught that I never could fly
I was taught that I never could find
What is forever
Our brains are crying systematic tears
Leaking all knowledge that comes near
We are taught not to fear empty brains
We are still stuck in chains
Which refrain from our evolution
Taught not to search for any solutions
So we could remain in our illiterate state
Our illiterate state made up of knowledge barriers
Barriers nailed up by public schools
Which in the process destroyed our tools for any future
I've heard so many times
That the odds are stacked up against us
But how could that be possible
When we aren't even included in the systems game
Our faces are painted with shame
Because we have no names
Just shocking statistics to define us
Ayo it's fucked up how they don't care
How we fare
They wave the American dream in my face
Place me in a never-ending race
To then tell me in the finish line
"Sorry you didn't make it in time"
Literacy is becoming extinct
Everyday I feel closer to my failure
Everyday I wake up to a graveyard
Because with no knowledge
My peers might as well be brain-dead
But my screams are useless
Because no one will take the time to prove this
Because illiteracy is an epidemic with no cure
Producing illiterate casualties all over the South Bronx ...
