“The devil planted fear inside the black baby,” the man with the rhythmic voice says confidently.
“Fifty cent sodas in the hood, they going crazy,” Metion says and a few others join him to finish the Ghostface lyric. “Dead meat placed on the shelves, we eat cold cuts, fast from the hog y’all and grow up!”
The group explodes in cheers, but then the rhythmic voice interrupts the revelry.
“Y’all say the words, but do you even know what you saying? Do you hear the wisdom in it, or just the rhythm? The devil uses any means to weaken and exploit the black man. The food we eat is poisonous, the air we breathe, the water we drink is poisonous. The entertainment we consume poisons our morals…”
“You poisoning me with all that preaching,” Dae’s mother says and many in the group laugh. “Metion, I thought this was a party. I would’ve stayed at home if I knew we was gone get lectured at all night.”
“Sister, it’s not my intention to ruin your evening,” the rhythmic voice says. “I came here tonight to have a good time just like all of you. I love being with my people in joy and celebration, but I look around this house tonight and I don’t see celebration. I see my people debasing themselves, poisoning themselves with alcohol and drugs. I see it and I have to call it out, ’cause I care about the future of black people. And if this is our idea of fun, then we ain’t got no future at all.”
“So what you saying…,” Dae’s mother started but Metion interjected.
“Hold on, girl, the man got a point don’t he? I mean, we all know the words to the songs, and the beats nice, we dance or whatever, but Ghostface was saying something, something that might be true if we take the time to listen.”
“You think if he was here, he wouldn’t be partying like everybody else?”
“That ain’t the point, sister,” the rhythmic voice says, “divine truth can issue from imperfect vessels. If not for brother Ghostface, we may not be having this conversation right now, and I got a feeling this conversation is consequential. The question for all y’all is, what will you do with the truth when you find it?”
“If not for this baby in my belly,” Dae’s mother says with an exaggerated roll of her eyes, “I would be slightly buzzed and actually enjoying myself tonight, and that’s the truth.”
“You should thank the King or Queen you carrying then, for keeping you free of contamination.”
Dae’s mother shakes her head dismissively and waves a hand.
“We might as well go,” she says to Metion, but he has stars in his eyes. The rhythmic voice is saying everything that Metion wants to believe is true. It’s like the rhythmic voice has instructions on how to make his baby the king that he wants him to be.
“You can go,” Metion says and moves to sit closer to the rhythmic voice.
Dae’s mother and most of the others who had been listening with half hearted disinterest wander away from the lecture of the rhythmic voice to livelier rooms of the party.
“Metion looking at that man like he gone crawl down his throat,” a friend of Dae’s mother says. “If that was my man, I would be jealous. You got some competition.”
“Shut up,” Dae’s mother says. “I hope he really paying attention so he realize that man full of sanctimonious bullshit.”
PRL Serials 