You Better Back That Thing Up

Sister You Better Back that Thang Up
By akazia-juneé

Hey sister friend with the firm breast, small waist, and tight behind. You better back that thing up before age and gravity takes all that shit and heads South. Nah, ain’t nothing wrong with shakin what ya mama gave ya, but sister, you better back that thang up. Back that thing up with a mastery of technology, psychology, and phenomenology. Sister you’d better back that thing up with an awareness that though you were born in the projects – the projects were not born in you. Sisters you better back that thang up.

Sister you better back that thang up with a made- up mind that education and the ability to do for self is what you need. Now don’t think I’m hatin', cause I’m only statin`, you ain’t a bitch, you a Queen. Seed of humankind. The first, the last, before you there were none, after you there shall be no more. Sister, you better back that thang up.

Sister, you better back that thang up- cause you stand on the shoulders of ancestral mothers that endured oppression in its highest form so the you could proclaim that “ I’m Every Woman.” Sisters like Queen Hatshepsut, Maria Stewart, Zora Neal Hurston, Sara Vaughn, Billy Holiday, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth. Sister, you better back that thang up.

Sister you better back that thang up. I know that Wild Women don’t get no blues, but you better insist no glove, no love. Cause AIDS and other STDS are killing us by the thousands. Walk away from that abusive relationship and embrace the lover within. Sister, you better back that thang up.

Sister you better back that thang up by joining in solidarity with brothers who respect you for your mind, body and spirit, rather than a wet hole to lay the wood. Join in love with brothers who want to be more than just yo baby’s daddy: but a life partner ready to help raise a nation. Sisters you better back that thang up.

Sister you better back that thang up with the words of Anna Julie Cooper, who said, “only the Black woman can say when and where I enter, in the quiet of my womanhood, without violence. Then and there the whole African race enters with me.” Sister, you better back that thang up.

Sister you better back that thang up with a strong relationship with Mother, Father God. Knowing that nothing is impossible if we only trust. Sister as you embrace Y2K and a new millenium, I’m telling you- Sister, you better back that thang up! Sister you better back that thang up! Sister, you better back that thang up! And I ain’t talking about your hard drive.

©1999