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.

More Stories