Before They Called You White-Brother Ali

[ti:Before They Called You White] [ar:Brother Ali] [al:All The Beauty In This Whole Life] [by:] [offset:0] [00:00.00]Before They Called You White - Brother Ali [00:04.66]At what point did poor European people that used to rebel [00:08.84]Against the ones that forced them to work land [00:11.42]They didn't own and die with nothing of their own [00:13.96] [00:16.03]What was it that turned their hearts [00:17.60]So that they start to identify with power [00:19.51]Even though they're powerless [00:20.61]Identify with wealth even though they're broke [00:23.00] [00:24.61]It's the invention of whiteness [00:25.62] [00:27.54]They call you white by white standards [00:29.31]Damn what they're talking 'bout human first [00:31.70]Stand and curse the dirty hand that first crafted the plan [00:35.00]Spread it through the land and shattered the damn earth [00:37.86]This is sickest system that ever existed [00:40.92]Since this earth's beginning commenced it's twisting [00:43.87]How you convince man with red blood to bleed [00:46.87]Completely devalue what a human being means [00:49.69]Nobody called themselves white several centuries ago [00:53.05]They were living off the land with the trees [00:55.58]They were Dutch they were Irish they were German [00:57.65]They were Greek with culture families tradition and beliefs [01:01.57]And rich blood suckers saw new soil to seize [01:04.30]And they ain't 'bout to get their hands dirty cracker please [01:06.80] [01:07.36]Swindled you to trade in your identity [01:09.86]Showed you pie in the sky and promised you a piece [01:13.00]With symbolic image in the scripture that you're reading [01:16.01]White holy angels and black evil demons [01:19.02]You were so starving that you started to believe it [01:21.74]Now you'll die colonizing for somebody else's greed [01:24.82]Don't you see the overseers are still in the field [01:27.36]Every breath a warden breathe is still in the jail [01:30.34]You will never own that farm or the prison for real [01:33.27]Terrified of the time when your victims rebel [01:36.16]Listen you don't fear them you fear the blood on your hand [01:39.38]All the ugly you done to that man [01:41.51]That woman that child that land [01:43.89]That sea that sky that they'd look you in the eye [01:46.75]And demand that you tell them why [01:48.41]All them years whipping and lying and killing [01:50.88]Generations of poison and bombing and drilling [01:53.76]All designed to turn the hearts of your children to stone [01:56.75]Got post traumatic slave master syndrome [02:00.06]How the hell are y'all going to heal be made whole [02:02.95]You identifying with the people in control [02:05.92]You can't throw a human in the bottom of a boat [02:08.81]Unless somebody got a damn chain around your soul [02:11.82]In that middle passage asking who got stole [02:14.64]A hot auction block where your blood ran cold [02:17.56]Every day a cop let them shots explode [02:20.41]You're gon' have to find a way to regain your soul [02:23.21]I said the eye can't see itself [02:25.02] [02:25.71]It can't sit back critique itself and peep itself [02:28.77]It needs help [02:29.86]Take the sword for example [02:31.41]No matter how hard it can't carve its own handle [02:34.83]I said the eye can't see itself [02:37.32]It can't sit back critique itself and peep itself [02:40.50]It needs help [02:41.61]Take the sword for example [02:43.09]No matter how hard it can't carve its own handle [02:45.93] [02:48.47]The inner city of our cities is like another country [02:51.31]The rules are different [02:52.38]It's almost like you need a passport there [02:54.85]The police treat people differently [02:56.75]When I lived out in the suburbs [02:58.64]If my car broke down on the highway [03:00.71]And a state trooper pulled up behind me [03:02.47]I wouldn't have been scared [03:03.71]I'd have been glad [03:04.74]But young man after young man [03:06.38]After young man had been beaten by the police [03:09.02]And the only way you know [03:11.41]You've got to be with the people [03:12.71]And we live separated [03:14.06]We go in air conditioned cars [03:15.53]And we stick on your interstates [03:17.09]And hang out with people just like us [03:19.11]Well by god's grace [03:20.88]I was brought into this [03:23.50]And seeing how race plays a part [03:25.73]And how poverty plays a part [03:27.29]And my job is to go out to the American people