MAMA, WHERE MY DADDY? (2025) by Kevin “Rashid” Johnson

Mama, where my daddy?

He should have been here long ago

Baby I know and I’ll try to explain

Why he just couldn’t show

But Mama, does Daddy love me?

Child you know he do

Truth be told son

Bad men took him away from you

They call theyselves lawmen

You see them everyday

They the ones that give you

Evil looks from patrol cars while you play

They think you a problem

That’s why it ain’t safe to lock eyes

When they see you they see your Daddy

And wanna take you for a ride

Throw you in a cell

Stomp and kick your head

Give you life in jail

Or even worse shoot you dead

But why Mama what I do

To make them hate me so bad?

You ain’t do nothing baby

But be a Black male like your Dad

They think you stole they chance

To be a man theyself

You poor and struggling live in despair

But they act like we got the wealth

That’s the thing they don’t get

It’s the rich men who put them there

And got us all struggling

They the ones who make things unfair

But the cops and some white folks

Would rather not make a scene

With those in power so they come to our

Neighborhoods to let off they steam

We’re an easier target

We got no power no defenses

So we get billy clubs slugs and drugs

Plantations with razor wire fences

Juvenile prisons overflowing

With male children of our kind

Schools run by bad men just like the pen

To feed the school-to-prison pipeline

Just look what they done to Tamir Rice

A 12 year old playing in the park

They ain’t care he was a baby with a toy gun

They shot him dead cuz his skin was dark

Or take little George Stinney

Executed in the electric chair

An innocent baby same age as Tamir

But he was Black so they ain’t care

Or Emmitt Till not much older

They beat him till he was dead

His Mama kept his coffin open

So folks could see how they smashed his head

Or how about Trayvon Martin

Stalked by a wanna-be cop

Who shot him dead cuz he turned and said

Why you following me? Man stop!

For centuries it was made clear

Our own babies we couldn’t protect

Our girls were raped boys were lynched

And we still get no respect

So I’ve always said keep your head low

Hoping you’d be safe

Black Mamas been trying to save our male babies

Since back in slavery days

Tuck you back in the womb

To protect you each night I pray

Let you escape the evil men and tomb

That took your Daddy away

But Mama how you gonna hide me

A target cuz I’m male and Black

I can’t change that

But we can learn to defend each other and fight back

If all we do

Is learn to hide cower duck and run

Our communities and homes will never be safe

And you’ll be giving this same talk to my son