Good evening friends and blessin’s
We’re continuing our lessons
Is our hist’ry such a myst’ry
No this won’t be on the quiz, see

If you give some folks a better shake
Than the other ones
The taller or the shorter
They will take the road to ruin
They may know not what they’re doin
It will be a circle jerk, it won’t work
a cul de sac, no goin’ back

Power corrupts, it interrupts
Equal rights it disrupts
Then after a while you get your empires, gunnin’
For the profits that are runnin’
Grabbin’ land and killin’ humans
Only if you can’t enslave ‘em
Taking what they say god gave em
And these pirates who so violate
Cloak themselves in church and state

Flash forward to the days
When emerging from the haze
Of world war the newest nation
Became the leader of the pack
And attacked anyone who would
Dare to block their track

Come the 60s this great nation
Was taken to a war against its poor
Darker people both at home and cross the sea
But the youth exclaimed no more
Show old school right out the door
For minute we were winning
But we were only beginning

Powers that were girded their forces
Pledged and plotted to retain resources
Re-asserting their dominion
Over public opinion opinion opinion

America was conquered and destroyed
Grabbing treasure for their pleasure
It was looted, loot rerouted
And then the people must rebel
Raising up the decibel
Without which we’ll ne’er do well
Democracy with inequality can never last

Then began an anti-freedom ride
The Attorney General said
“This country’s going so far to the right….
You won’t recognize it.”
But still they will disguise it
With dog whistles and epistles
To the sanctity of whiteness
There will be no white contriteness

Everything after was a slide
All our progress nullified
Putting people back in boxes
Chickens caged, guarded by foxes
Military thugs in blue
Yes they do know what they do
Orange menace riles up racists
Who fear browns will take their places
Orange man would like another Orangeburg

And then there was an interregnum
Freedom fighters pause and keep mum
Black man in a white house
In like lion, out like meek mouse
Even so infuriating
Those used to dominating
Some small status they’d enjoyed
Declaring others null and void

The only way to really quit
Is to openly admit
The hurt and rage of those
Who cannot turn the page and close the book
On this regime of greed and lying
Of theft and occupying
Which parades itself as greatness
If we’re willing we can break with our own past
Because democracy with inequality can never last

Imagine a world like white suburbanites
Already have
No daily terror from the wearer of the
Badge and gun
What fun!

America was conquered and destroyed
Grabbing treasure for their pleasure
It was looted, loot rerouted
And then the people must rebel
Raising up the decibel
Without which we’ll ne’er do well
Democracy with inequality can never last

So they kill and kill but yet and still
There will be a limit
When people rise agin’ it
And people say to profit
That’s enough, come on, come off it
And then perhaps we’ll see
Whether folks like you and me
Can learn to see through boys in blue
And know exactly what to do

We don’t want to burn it down
But if these clowns won’t come around
They better know it’s gonna blow
And it won’t be so pretty
In the city of murder and despair
Yes they’re restoring order
and the order of the day
Is of course not what they say

There’s talk of cop brutality
Of racialized mentality
Police recruited to defend a brutal order
We can see it’s futile there’s no border
Twixt the brute and the suit who decides
And derides the downtrodden
So broaden your view, see that

You may not be the one with the gun
But you may have freedom and a nest egg
While others sit on a powder keg
This ain’t new as I think you knew
It don’t date from yesteryear I fear
Look at the wide screen
It dates from 1619
America was conquered and destroyed
Grabbing treasure for their pleasure
It was looted, loot rerouted
And then the people must rebel
Raising up the decibel
Without which we’ll ne’er do well
Democracy with inequality can never last