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