Brother Ali - Before They Called You White lyrics

[Intro] At what point did poor European people that used to rebel Against the ones that forced them to work land they didn’t own and die with nothing of their own What was it that turned their hearts so that they start to Identify with power even though they’re powerless Identify with wealth even though they’re broke? It’s the invention of whiteness [Verse] They call you white by white standards Damn what they’re talking ’bout human first Stand and curse the dirty hand that first crafted the plan Spread it through the land and shattered the damn earth This is sickest system that ever existed Since this earth beginning, commenced, it’s twisting How you convince men with red blood to bleed? Completely devalue what a human being means Nobody called themselves white several centuries ago They were living off the land with the trees They were Dutch, they were Irish, they were German They were Greek with culture, families, tradition and beliefs Rich blood s**ers saw new soil to seize And they ain’t ’bout to get their hands dirty, cracker please Swindled you to trade in your identity Showed you pie in the sky and promised you a piece With symbolic image in the scripture that you’re reading White holy angels and black evil demons You were so starving that you started to believe it Now you’ll die colonizing for somebody else’s greed Don’t you see the overseers are still in the field? Every breath a warden breathe he still in the jail You will never own that farm or the prison for real Terrified of the time when your victims rebel Listen you don’t fear them, you fear the blood on your hands All the ugly you done to that man That woman, that child, that land That sea, that sky, that they’d look you in the eye And demand that you tell them why All them years whipping and lying and k**ing Generations of poison and bombing and drilling All designed to turn the hearts of your children to stone Got post traumatic slave master syndrome How the hell are y’all going to heal, be made whole? You identifying with the people in control You can’t throw a human in the bottom of a boat Unless somebody got a damn chain around your soul In that middle pa**age asking who got stole? A hot auction block where your blood ran cold Every day a cop let them shots explode You’re gon’ have to find a way to regain your soul [Hook x2] I said the eye can’t see itself It can’t sit back, critique itself, and peep itself It needs help Take the sword for example No matter how hard, it can’t carve its own handle [Vocal Sample] The inner city of our cities is like another country. The rules are different. It’s almost like you need a pa**port there. The police treat people differently. When I lived out in the suburbs, if my car broke down on the highway and a state trooper pulled up behind me, I wouldn’t have been scared. I’d have been glad. But young man after young man after young man had been beaten by the police and the only way you know, you’ve got to be with the people and we live separated. We go in air conditioned cars and we stick on your interstates and hang out with people just like us. Well, by God’s grace, I was brought into this, and seeing how race plays a part and how poverty plays a part, and my job is to go out to the American people