by Reverend Reynard N. Blake, Jr.
See harmful loan schemes and tricks black folks go through
Criminal justice makes prison work fruitful
Sentence black guys with the long stints they’ll bring
Greenbacks accrue from high speculating
Song Parody: Teaching White People What Racism Means
by Reverend Reynard N. Blake, Jr.
[parody based on the song, “My Favorite Things” from the movie “The Sound of Music”]
“Reverse” and “racism” is hard to fathom
White people claiming that that’s what could happen
How could this happen when white folk run things?
There are some issues worth considering
White people complain when black people get blue
Gunshots for black men when stopped by the state troops
Breathing for black men seems hard when disdained
Teaching white people why racism stings
Did Africans lynch whites and started laughing?
Was rape o.k. for white boys on slave lasses?
Serving white masters and black women chained
These were examples of white privileging
When the dogs fight
And whites see it
And the owners’ black
They’re quickly forgetting lives snuffed through lynching
But then whites don’t give a damn
[Repeating the cadence of first 4 stanzas]
White folk thought chapters of racism smitten
Whites conquered their sins and blacks knew they didn’t
Watch lender packages tied up with strings
Then some blacks lose all their financial means
See harmful loan schemes and tricks black folks go through
Criminal justice makes prison work fruitful
Sentence black guys with the long stints they’ll bring
Greenbacks accrue from high speculating
Lacking investment in schools or in transit
Low-pay has black folks’ lives shortened with hardships
Watching whites whisking black neighborhoods plain
Gentrification finds black folk leaving
When the young die
When the Right wing
Think crime’s mostly black
I’m thinking Ferguson whites feel the same things
And, then I get steaming mad
Reverend Reynard N. Blake, Jr., M. S. is an ordained Baptist minister living in East Lansing, Michigan with his wife Karen Kelly-Blake, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences at Michigan State University (MSU). He earned his Master of Science degree in Community Development-Urban Studies from MSU and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the College of Charleston (SC). He has authored and co-authored several articles on faith-based community development and is also a poet, essayist, and social critic. His work has appeared on Black Commentator, Michigan Family Review, Op-ED.com, the Online Journal of Urban Youth Culture and Black Agenda Report. He is putting on the final touches on a book of political parody and poetry; no publisher yet. He would appreciate any input on where and how he can get it published. He can be reached at reynardblakejr@yahoo.com.
The New York Declaration doesn't merely betray Palestine. It weaponizes the language of statehood to formalize the suppression of a people's right to exist without colonial rule.
Gambians from all walks of life – led by the youth-driven GALA movement mobilized across the country on July 23 in an anti-corruption protest as momentum for change grows.
Morocco's colonial project in Western Sahara has persisted not through legitimacy, but through the complicity of other nations and United Nations inaction.
Angola, one of Africa’s top oil producers, is in turmoil after protests erupted over a sharp fuel price hike driven by IMF-backed subsidy cuts.
In this week’s segment, we discuss football, why it isn’t popular in the US, how it can be, sports as consciousness raising, and the nation of Brazil and its Black population. But first, we have the…
