The Revolution Will Not Be Emailed

You will not be able to stay home my brother
Sit in your comfortable chair stained by hours and hours of late night sessions of searchin’
Stay connected too cause of a new Broadband link
Part of the privileged black folk with computers and thangs
Mo gadgets got you confused that maybe social change occurs
With yo half-assed concern about the issues
I’m too busy right now
You should have done it this way advice for the activist few
Oh nah, my brother
The revolution will not be emailed

The revolution will not be this comfortable movement
That allows the cushions in your closet to stay fresh and cozy
For your odd-shaped head full of warped thoughts that somehow
You will be untouched by the remonstration
A protest affording you the right to ride the elevator with that white woman
Still afraid of you
Not only because you’re black but cause you’re sweet
And you thinking no one know
As you ride up to yo corporate office where the first thing you do is log on
Again I told you the revolution will not be emailed

You will not be able to open an empty document, start typing fast, format the text
Attach your care and concern and hit send
Hoping for an auto-response honoring your absentee ballad of participation
You won’t find the answer to oppression on Google
And Yahoo ain’t got no free plan that allows you the freedom to not involve yourself

The revolution will not be emailed
The revolution will not be lead by Hotmail, AOL, DSL or J. L. King
That you read E. Lynn Harris
Won’t give you a gift certificate entitling you to a chauffeur to the revolution
The revolution will have you in the driver’s seat
Seat belt or not, airbags or not
They’ll be no rebooting your ignorance after this crash
A dramatic change in the idea that all that’s black and gay can be evaded or devalued
Access to self-esteem will be an issue just like access to healthcare
And won’t be reserved for heterosexuals that missed the clue bus
It drives right down tenth pass the rioting gays in the streets
That will secure our better gay day
The revolution will not be avoided

That you regularly watch Will and Grace
Think Ellen is funny and should win an Emmy
Laughed while watching Queer As Folk
Is not evidence of your distress
Gil has already told you the revolution will not be televised
So you run to your computer for the answers on how to revolt
Though your inbox is full and your out box fuller
Again I say the revolution will not be downloadable
The revolution will not be emailed

The altercations on Men4Now, Men4RightNow, ICU, Adam4Adam
Won’t be mentioned in the history books that chronicles our revolution
The modernization of another chat room won’t free our people
The revolution will not be found in your key strokes
Looking for the love of your night
Or your jerk strokes squirtin’ it off to the right
That somehow you have 44 hours a week to perform
But couldn’t find three hours to alleviate the shame
That you didn’t even vote in the last election

The revolution will not make your inactivity appear sexy
Your gym membership to three different health clubs won’t prepare you for the fight
That you’ve got abs of steel don’t make you a warrior for the front line
Or any line of this revolution
The revolution will not look prettier on a 17 inch flat screen
You can’t upload your participation
The theme song will not be an MP3 that can be burned to CD without you singing in its chorus
You can’t download your participation
Have you even a jpeg of one of our leaders?
Who would all tell you
The revolution will not be emailed

The revolution will not keep you in your closets of fear, shame & self loathing
The revolution will not keep you in your closets of hate, bigotry &
Pompous to believe that your way of thinking is the only way
The revolution will not allow your closet of not so shocking homophobia
To exist in your house of immobile
That closet will be set on fire
Computer closets on fire everywhere burning the truth
That the revolution will not be emailed

The revolution will not allow you to engage in all this dialogue about brothers on the DL
Why men gotta lie?
Why these boogie men prey on us?
Why can’t I have a “get out of responsibility card” free in the age of AIDS?
Then in the next breath you call me faggot
The same faggot who will be on the front line
Helping to get your lovers into HIV treatment
Helping to save your heterosexual advantaged black ass

Look, I’ve got news for you
And maybe I can say it in a language that you understand
Welcome
You’ve Got Mail!
THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE EMAILED