Ayo White Folks

Ayo white folks yeah I'm talking to you
White folks looking uncomfortable in the room
Ayo white folks yeah you part of the group
We can stay part of the problem or start facing the truth
Ayo white folks yeah I'm talking to you
White folks looking uncomfortable in the room
Ayo white folks yeah you part of the group
We can stay part of the problem or start facing the truth

There's no apparent place to start
With our parents in our hearts
In your classrooms or your block
On your word or in your thoughts
What you learned and what you taught
The myth of the melting pot
If you a teacher or a cop
or read Michele and Barack
Take a moment to stop this apart from your kindness
This is part of our blindness and at the crux of our bias
Whiteness is a fact and a system built on the backs
Of murder and pseudo-science and generations of wrath
Prejudice is acquired inherited and displayed
Discrimination is actions based on it to separate
Racism fathered race to hold humans in their place
Based on what the white man had to say who he enslaved
Foundation of economy is racial ideology that built the 13 colonies
And predicated policy
Dedicated to segregating and perpetuating the feeling that keeps white people
Thinking we better by nature
Check yourself sure we're all special flowers
But privilege gives us power in what we don't encounter
For jobs you might compete profiled by the police
Followed around while shopping denied a restaurant seat
The world works in our favor you probably look like neighbors
And probably can get a loan and probably can own some acres
And see your likeness on TV in all of your favorite shows
And get products that you need in every market and store
The thing about thinking white is not having to think twice
Quick to call the authorities without risking your life
Able to trace your roots and taking that for granted
Not knowing why I smack you when you say all lives matter

Ayo white folks yeah I'm talking to you
White folks looking uncomfortable in the room
Ayo white folks yeah you part of the group
We can stay part of the problem or start facing the truth
Ayo white folks yeah I'm talking to you
White folks looking uncomfortable in the room
Ayo white folks yeah you part of the group
We can stay part of the problem or start facing the truth

I'm here to keep learning to step aside and shift power to folks of color
And elevate women's voices till anomalies are abundant
More prone to run with mystics than with critics and pundits
Till the movement of this radius sweeps across the circumference
Trust I understand about growing up in struggle
Been bullied for being jewish rocking hand me downs from my cousin
And having ancestral history fraught with fleeing oppressors
But none of that's a reason to ignore the systems methods
America the usual truth false testimonials
Coups still move colonial school still quite draconian
Punishments more severe for the black and brown and queer
While Anglo Saxons cheer and have dogwhistling ears
So this is a call to action to my white folks who're combatting the
The criminalizing of blackness and politicians who back it
And cops who kill a black man then get promoted to captain
Here a few ways you can take action
Have difficult conversations with people that you care about
See a racist in public call em out and stare em down
Show up for collective actions slap a proud boy yapping
Film police use your voice to speak have neighborly interactions
Read intersectional books bell hooks and White Fragility
Watch 13th ignore calls for rule of law and civility
It's our duty to smash the pattern not be bystanders
If you down with that holler back Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter