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ancianita
ancianita's Journal
ancianita's Journal
Utah Phillips -- "The Long Memory"
September 7, 2020
Just because.
September 6, 2020
Sundown Towns in 2020 America
Click on the line Watch this video on YouTube, thanks.
September 6, 2020
When you click on the underlined "Watch this video on YouTube," you'll access it.
(Sorry for the glitch. It's never happened here before.)
Tieesha Essex Confirms AFTER the fact that Rock Springs, WY, IS a #SundownTown
Young sistas should never again have to go through this dark ugliness in America.When you click on the underlined "Watch this video on YouTube," you'll access it.
(Sorry for the glitch. It's never happened here before.)
September 6, 2020
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Sundown_towns_in_the_United_States_by_state
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundown_town
We The People. Who are the "we” of sundown towns across America.
The 'we’ I’ve known are only folks who know southern states. They are my 100 or so former black students, and my 30 or so black friends on Facebook. When I brought up sundown towns this past July, a few of my black friends' friends told me about several near them in Illinois -- my blue home state of residence has more sundown towns than any other state! There's nearby Indiana, Mike Pence’s state. Hell, we have House Democrats from states that still harbor sundown towns.
How do those 19th Century towns legally still exist anywhere, anymore in the 21st Century!
You'd be surprised how many millions of whites, and Blacks for that matter, who are antiracist, yet have still never heard of sundown towns, or believe they exist only in the dustbin of history.
Ignorance of America's original sin is still a matter of exposure.
One thing I know is that Joe Biden knows. In so many words, Joe said, the hatred that spawns racism and other exclusions doesn’t go away. It hides. Blow some oxygenation under their rock and they come out full force again.
This is not an unsolvable problem. I think Joe knows that, too. His work on this would go a long way to making public reparations to Anita Hill and black women.
To "feel better" about knowing about sundown towns is just our first step, as antiracists.
But knowing and feeling better about this ugly truth is no longer enough. Both knowing and feeling better, or hoping someone else is solving this concrete problem -- possibly in a town near you and me -- has been just one of the ways that we Democrats have unknowingly failed in the past.
We must transform our old habit with: "Now what!” And a plan.
Are you in a sundown town state? Governors Jay Pritzker, Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom are. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Sundown_towns_in_the_United_States_by_state
If we antiracists want this century free of racism, racists will have to be fought in these towns, too, not as in fight club, and not just through the BLM protesters taking these towns to the Supreme Court on Blacks' behalf. And not even with what Kamala Harris promises will be a new and improved Voting Rights Law. These people will have to be in for some "good trouble" from the rest of us.
To me, when antiracist whites really know, visit, and see these American places, these sundown towns' racist home rule policies would be taken to court. You'd think that the Southern Poverty Law Center or ACLU, bastions of civil rights court cases, would have tackled this policy remnant of the US’s 400-year disease once and for all. But the pressure on them will have to come from us. Feeling anxious about the last 55 days? Think about a trip to a sundown town near you.
Only one town has been taken down. Anna, Illinois, by Black Lives Matter this past year. https://www.propublica.org/article/a-sundown-town-sees-its-first-black-lives-matter-protest
That leaves 17 more. (Good lord, I can hardly even believe that I thought I'd left all that behind in the South.)
If the BLM method in Anna can work elsewhere, then we can finish this deadly virus off sooner than courts can. This BLM effort has been the final signal that antiracist whites had better solve.
It might not be solved once and for all, but it will be solved.
And the problem of sundown towns is whites' problem to solve.
This original sin no longer should be the burden of Blacks in America. European and American whites invented and developed the concepts of race, the capitalist systems built on race, and the subsequent policies of racism. Now, American whites should be the ones to end it. Young whites at BLM protests have made me proud, and sad that they still have to finish what we older Americans haven't.
I’ve had my radar out for years and have not seen any ACLU or other legal organization suits or rulings to stop sundown town racist policymakers — either through cease and desist orders, photographed breaking of injunctions against their assaults against blacks who enter to vote or shop or just BE in these towns. I’ve not seen any blanket orders of protection issued on behalf of blacks who live near them, nor witness protection from the FBI for those blacks who testify about sundown town abusers or leaders who run “law and order” interference for their white residents.
So why not offer the good cop/bad cop deal to these towns: either they quietly end their policies, or they are met immediately with court orders, enforced immediately through monitoring what Blacks and their local counsel, who live near these towns, report.
Civil rights legal work must be at state district court levels, then if necessary, reach state supreme courts, where the matter should end. If not, lawyers for plaintiffs need to pursue their sundown case suits to the SCOTUS. Pro bono. The ACLU and SPLC, having huge endowments, can get big bang for buck with these cases. But whites like us will have to bring them forward. Names, dates, stories, contact information.
Sundown towns, if taken to court, will then have to be monitored by Title VII Consent Decree, the way schools were for a few decades after Brown v Bd of Education, and by the public, the way antifa keep an eye on Nazis in Europe and here.
These towns keep the seeds of Nazis and militias alive, the soil of racism that build racist policy, use paramilitias, local police, sheriffs, to keep their unjust peace. All the things we're seeing in unsurgency form in antiracist cities right now. Black lives matter, their votes matter as much in and near these 137 small towns as in America’s cities.
The Constitution says so. The Civil Rights Act says so.
These towns should never ever have been allowed to exist this long.
There can be no more "I didn't know" excuses. Every racist generation tries to *forget* its past damage, then reproduce ignorance about its bad policies that stand, unknown. Or unnoticed because hidden under threat of white violence.
I say NO. No more. Racist Policies that infringe, endanger, damage and eventually kill all races, along with white racists, eventually.
Racist policies allow these sundown towns their veiled racist language, their covid excuses, or any other excuses their enforcers use run interference for undercover hate.
The policy MAKERS of racist policy must be served injunctions; failing to show policy and street level changes, they must be eliminated by defunding, firing, and jail.
If it comes down to buying them out, allies in philanthropy can make sundown town real estate deals, or buy towns lock, stock and barrel; make whole towns their new land investment write-offs. Green New Deal investment locations for manufacturing jobs.
To finally salt the racist soil of this country is to never let this inhumanity grow here again.
There is no sitting back once Joe Biden and Kamala Harris start up the first 100 days.
Because if Black Lives STILL don’t Matter anywhere, then no lives matter anywhere.
Then we are not the more perfect union. Not America.
Sundown Towns -- There Are Still 137 Sundown Towns Across 21 States
Sundown Towns -- 137 Sundown Towns Across 21 States -- Are The Litmus Test of America's Transformationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Sundown_towns_in_the_United_States_by_state
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundown_town
Sundown towns, also known as sunset towns, gray towns, or sundowner towns, are all-white municipalities or neighborhoods in the United States that practice a form of racial segregation by excluding non-whites via some combination of discriminatory local laws, intimidation, and violence. Entire sundown counties[1] and sundown suburbs were also created by the same process. The term came from signs posted that "colored people" had to leave town by sundown.[2] The practice was not restricted to the southern states ... at least until the early 1960s...northern states could be nearly as inhospitable to black travelers...
Following the end of the Reconstruction Era, many thousands of towns and counties across the United States became sundown localities, as part of the imposition of Jim Crow laws and other racist practices. In most cases, the exclusion was official town policy or was promulgated by the community's real estate agents via exclusionary covenants governing who could buy or rent property. In others, the policy was enforced through intimidation. This intimidation could occur in a number of ways, including harassment by law enforcement officers.[6] Though widely believed to be a thing of the past, many hundreds of sunset towns continue to effectively exclude black people and other minorities in the twenty-first century...
...sociologist James William Loewen writes in his book, Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (2005) writes that sundown status meant more than just that African Americans were unable to live in these towns. Any black people who entered or were found in sundown towns after sunset were subject to harassment, threats, and violence, including lynching....
Following the end of the Reconstruction Era, many thousands of towns and counties across the United States became sundown localities, as part of the imposition of Jim Crow laws and other racist practices. In most cases, the exclusion was official town policy or was promulgated by the community's real estate agents via exclusionary covenants governing who could buy or rent property. In others, the policy was enforced through intimidation. This intimidation could occur in a number of ways, including harassment by law enforcement officers.[6] Though widely believed to be a thing of the past, many hundreds of sunset towns continue to effectively exclude black people and other minorities in the twenty-first century...
...sociologist James William Loewen writes in his book, Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (2005) writes that sundown status meant more than just that African Americans were unable to live in these towns. Any black people who entered or were found in sundown towns after sunset were subject to harassment, threats, and violence, including lynching....
We The People. Who are the "we” of sundown towns across America.
The 'we’ I’ve known are only folks who know southern states. They are my 100 or so former black students, and my 30 or so black friends on Facebook. When I brought up sundown towns this past July, a few of my black friends' friends told me about several near them in Illinois -- my blue home state of residence has more sundown towns than any other state! There's nearby Indiana, Mike Pence’s state. Hell, we have House Democrats from states that still harbor sundown towns.
How do those 19th Century towns legally still exist anywhere, anymore in the 21st Century!
You'd be surprised how many millions of whites, and Blacks for that matter, who are antiracist, yet have still never heard of sundown towns, or believe they exist only in the dustbin of history.
Ignorance of America's original sin is still a matter of exposure.
One thing I know is that Joe Biden knows. In so many words, Joe said, the hatred that spawns racism and other exclusions doesn’t go away. It hides. Blow some oxygenation under their rock and they come out full force again.
This is not an unsolvable problem. I think Joe knows that, too. His work on this would go a long way to making public reparations to Anita Hill and black women.
To "feel better" about knowing about sundown towns is just our first step, as antiracists.
But knowing and feeling better about this ugly truth is no longer enough. Both knowing and feeling better, or hoping someone else is solving this concrete problem -- possibly in a town near you and me -- has been just one of the ways that we Democrats have unknowingly failed in the past.
We must transform our old habit with: "Now what!” And a plan.
Are you in a sundown town state? Governors Jay Pritzker, Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom are. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Sundown_towns_in_the_United_States_by_state
If we antiracists want this century free of racism, racists will have to be fought in these towns, too, not as in fight club, and not just through the BLM protesters taking these towns to the Supreme Court on Blacks' behalf. And not even with what Kamala Harris promises will be a new and improved Voting Rights Law. These people will have to be in for some "good trouble" from the rest of us.
To me, when antiracist whites really know, visit, and see these American places, these sundown towns' racist home rule policies would be taken to court. You'd think that the Southern Poverty Law Center or ACLU, bastions of civil rights court cases, would have tackled this policy remnant of the US’s 400-year disease once and for all. But the pressure on them will have to come from us. Feeling anxious about the last 55 days? Think about a trip to a sundown town near you.
Only one town has been taken down. Anna, Illinois, by Black Lives Matter this past year. https://www.propublica.org/article/a-sundown-town-sees-its-first-black-lives-matter-protest
That leaves 17 more. (Good lord, I can hardly even believe that I thought I'd left all that behind in the South.)
If the BLM method in Anna can work elsewhere, then we can finish this deadly virus off sooner than courts can. This BLM effort has been the final signal that antiracist whites had better solve.
It might not be solved once and for all, but it will be solved.
And the problem of sundown towns is whites' problem to solve.
This original sin no longer should be the burden of Blacks in America. European and American whites invented and developed the concepts of race, the capitalist systems built on race, and the subsequent policies of racism. Now, American whites should be the ones to end it. Young whites at BLM protests have made me proud, and sad that they still have to finish what we older Americans haven't.
I’ve had my radar out for years and have not seen any ACLU or other legal organization suits or rulings to stop sundown town racist policymakers — either through cease and desist orders, photographed breaking of injunctions against their assaults against blacks who enter to vote or shop or just BE in these towns. I’ve not seen any blanket orders of protection issued on behalf of blacks who live near them, nor witness protection from the FBI for those blacks who testify about sundown town abusers or leaders who run “law and order” interference for their white residents.
So why not offer the good cop/bad cop deal to these towns: either they quietly end their policies, or they are met immediately with court orders, enforced immediately through monitoring what Blacks and their local counsel, who live near these towns, report.
Civil rights legal work must be at state district court levels, then if necessary, reach state supreme courts, where the matter should end. If not, lawyers for plaintiffs need to pursue their sundown case suits to the SCOTUS. Pro bono. The ACLU and SPLC, having huge endowments, can get big bang for buck with these cases. But whites like us will have to bring them forward. Names, dates, stories, contact information.
Sundown towns, if taken to court, will then have to be monitored by Title VII Consent Decree, the way schools were for a few decades after Brown v Bd of Education, and by the public, the way antifa keep an eye on Nazis in Europe and here.
These towns keep the seeds of Nazis and militias alive, the soil of racism that build racist policy, use paramilitias, local police, sheriffs, to keep their unjust peace. All the things we're seeing in unsurgency form in antiracist cities right now. Black lives matter, their votes matter as much in and near these 137 small towns as in America’s cities.
The Constitution says so. The Civil Rights Act says so.
These towns should never ever have been allowed to exist this long.
There can be no more "I didn't know" excuses. Every racist generation tries to *forget* its past damage, then reproduce ignorance about its bad policies that stand, unknown. Or unnoticed because hidden under threat of white violence.
I say NO. No more. Racist Policies that infringe, endanger, damage and eventually kill all races, along with white racists, eventually.
Racist policies allow these sundown towns their veiled racist language, their covid excuses, or any other excuses their enforcers use run interference for undercover hate.
The policy MAKERS of racist policy must be served injunctions; failing to show policy and street level changes, they must be eliminated by defunding, firing, and jail.
If it comes down to buying them out, allies in philanthropy can make sundown town real estate deals, or buy towns lock, stock and barrel; make whole towns their new land investment write-offs. Green New Deal investment locations for manufacturing jobs.
To finally salt the racist soil of this country is to never let this inhumanity grow here again.
There is no sitting back once Joe Biden and Kamala Harris start up the first 100 days.
Because if Black Lives STILL don’t Matter anywhere, then no lives matter anywhere.
Then we are not the more perfect union. Not America.
September 5, 2020
The Biden-Harris Transition Team -- Names, Titles and Past Experience
Other than their status, I've not looked up details about their strengths, weaknesses and general experience. I do notice the named "veterans," which I might be tempted to think of as operatives; either word adds a savvy edge to the team's judgment in rebuilding better, once the Executive Branch cleanup begins.
TRANSITION TEAM LEADER
-- Senator Ted Kaufman (DE), led Biden’s transition as VP in 2008
CO-CHAIRS
-- Jeffrey Zients, the top Obama economic adviser who was tasked with rescuing the floundering HealthCare.gov website;
-- Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, NM, who Biden considered for the vice presidential running mate;
-- Rep. Cedric Richmond, LA, a top Biden surrogate and national co-chair of his campaign;
-- Anita Dunn, a senior campaign adviser.
15 PERSON ADVISORY BOARD
-- Susan Rice, former national security adviser;
-- Vivek Murthy, US surgeon general under President Barack Obama who's advised Biden's campaign on policy and campaign tactics amid the coronavirus pandemic;
-- Sally Yates, the former deputy attorney general;
-- Tony Allen, the president of the historically Black Delaware State University;
-- Jared Bernstein, veteran Biden economic adviser;
-- Leslie Caldwell, former assistant attorney general;
-- Mark Gitenstein, former US ambassador to Romania ;
-- Cecilia Martinez, environmentalist ;
-- Bob McDonald, former Veterans Affairs secretary;
-- Minyon Moore, veteran Democratic operative ;
-- Teresa Romero, leader of the United Farm Workers;
-- Lonnie Stephenson, leader of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers;
-- Cathy Russell, a former Jill Biden chief of staff who Obama named to a new position: ambassador-at-large for Global Women's Issues;
-- Felicia Wong, president of the Roosevelt Institute;
-- Pete Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, IN, and primary competitor.
SENIOR STAFF
-- Yohannes Abraham, LEADER, day to day operations
-- Avril Haines, manage the transition team's national security and foreign policy efforts (former principal deputy national security adviser and deputy director of the CIA);
-- Gautam Raghavan, current chief of staff to Rep Jayapal;
-- Angela Ramirez , chief of staff to Assistant House Speaker Ben Ray Luján;
-- Evan Ryan, former Biden WH adviser;
-- Julie Siegel, Senator Warren’s senior counsel for economic policy;
-- Cynthia Hogan, a long-time Biden aide and former Apple lobbyist who helped lead his vice presidential search process;
-- Cecilia Muñoz, head of the Obama White House's Domestic Policy Council;
-- Tanya Bradsher, Democratic political and policy veteran;
-- Suzy George, Democratic political and policy veteran;
-- Don Graves, former Biden staffer; Democratic political and policy veteran;
-- Jessica Hertz, Democratic political and policy veteran;
-- Tara McGuinness, Democratic political and policy veteran;
-- Darla Pomeroy, former Biden staffer, Democratic political and policy veteran.
I don't wanna say all the things are looking inevitable. Nope.
September 4, 2020
Fuck the Fascist FOP
(excerpted lyrics)
They use force to make you do
What the deciders have decided you must do
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses
Those who died are justified
For wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites
You justify those that died
By wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites
Those who died are justified
For wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites
You justify those that died
By wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses
Killing in the name of
Killing in the name of
Now you do what they told ya
Now you do what they told ya
Now you do what they told ya
Now you do what they told ya
And now you do what they told ya
(Now you're under control) And now you do what they told ya
(Now you're under control) And now you do what they told ya ...
RATM -- Killing In The Name Of
Fuck the Fascist FOP
(excerpted lyrics)
They use force to make you do
What the deciders have decided you must do
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses
Those who died are justified
For wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites
You justify those that died
By wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites
Those who died are justified
For wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites
You justify those that died
By wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses
Killing in the name of
Killing in the name of
Now you do what they told ya
Now you do what they told ya
Now you do what they told ya
Now you do what they told ya
And now you do what they told ya
(Now you're under control) And now you do what they told ya
(Now you're under control) And now you do what they told ya ...
September 4, 2020
"Fight The Power: Remix 2020"
(feat. Jahi, Rapsody, Black Thought, Nas, YG)
[Chuck D:]
This is revolution shit
Uh, yeah, c'mon and get down
Uh, yeah, c'mon and get down
Uh, yeah, hey
The year is 2020, the number
A little somethin' to get down
Sound of the funky drummer
Music hitting' the heart 'cause I know you got soul
Brothers and sisters
[Nas:]
The Information Age
Got 'em seein' what's really wrong with these racist days
I honor the strong and pity the weak
Your thoughts run your life, be careful what you think
Haiti beat France, a century, seventeen
Salute Toussaint and Dessalines
And I do love France, know what I mean?
It's the system I'm talkin', nobody's agreein'
They say, "Suicide," when dead bodies are swingin'
Cowards are huntin' black men, that's what I'm seein'
How many toasters have been burnt down?
And once Central Park was a thrivin' black town
Yo, Chuck, I'm fightin' the power right now
Thank you, Flav and P-E, puttin' it down
Puttin' your life on the line so I could rap now
The next generation still singin', "Fight the Power"
[(Chuck D) Flava Flav:]
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power, (we got to fight the powers that be)
[Rapsody:]
Police think they reign [?] over the law (Yeah)
When they give us short sticks but we really need a long
To the boys in the hood, duckin' bullets and batons
From boys in the hood, triple Ks on they arm
Four fingers on my palm screamin', "Fight"
Change the policy, before I buy back our property
You love Black Panther but not Fred Hampton
Word to the Howards and the Aggies and the Hamptons
They book us, won't book us, I'm Booker
T. Washington, George killed, for twenty
Think about it (Think), that's two thousand pennies
The value of black life the cost of goin' to Wendy's
For a four-quarter burger, ended in murder
Fight for Breonna and the pain of her mother, gotta
[(Chuck D) Flava Flav:]
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power, (we got to fight the powers that be)
[Black Thought:]
Yeah, generations just how long we been at war
The revolution on all platforms
You break a man's mind in his back
Yo, solidarity is what I'm wearin' all black for
For comrades who done fought without me
It's not to try and change y'all thoughts about me
Or to redirect your reports about me
Dear white people, you should take a course about me
'Cause, is it the law, for a four-finger ring?
The sciences and the arts, the songs we can sing?
I really wanna know why y'all so scared
Prolly 'cause the promised land, we almost there
But look, I think of images that fuel my youth
Been influenced by Craig Hodges and Abdul-Rauf
Examples like Olympic, Black Power salutes
To Panther troops, I saw as I pursued my truth
If racism is the cancer, black thought's the answer
Gotta get up off the back porch, emancipate your minds
Get your bodies back from ransom (C'mon)
And all black hands up for the anthem
[(Chuck D) Flava Flav:]
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power, we got to fight the powers that be
Yo, yo, check this out, man
Bring that beat back, man (Bring that beat back)
In two, three, four, hit it
[Jahi:]
People, people, stronger than this evil
Smashin' your power structure, melanin royal, regal
System designed to kill and unprotect
Worldwide, hit the streets just to get some respect
Our fight and our rights for freedom will never wane
But justice Breonna Taylor, salute Chuck and Flava
Feel the same anger since Radio Raheem died
Black power to the people, push forward, pride
[YG:]
Fight power like it's the opp, though
Born to fight, I made it off the block though
Thought he had a gun and he was black, that's the combo
The police killed George havin' a convo (George)
They killed Malcolm X, they killed Doctor King (Doctor King)
They gave us guns and dope, they wanna stop our kings
They tryna erase our history, stop and think
History class ain't tell us 'bout Juneteeth
Cops don't give a damn about a negro
Pull the trigger, kill a negro, he's a hero
Fuck livin' life on welfare, the last one who cared was Obamacare
Round twelve, nose kinda bloody, gotta keep fightin'
Trump flew to North Korea, they respect violence
If you ain't tryna have your city on fire
Put some respect on our name, we come from gold and diamonds
[(Chuck D) Flava Flav:]
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power, (we got to fight the powers that be)
Yo, yo
[Chuck D:]
Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Motherfuck him and John Wayne
'Cause I'm Black and I'm proud
I'm ready, I'm hyped plus I'm amped
Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps
Sample a look back you look and find
Nothing but rednecks for four hundred years if you check
"Don't Worry, Be Happy" was a number one jam
Damn if I say it you can slap me right here
(Get it) Let's get this party started right
Right on, c'mon
What we got to say
Power to the people no delay
Make everybody see
In order to fight the powers that be
60 days out -- stay tough. WE are the Republic.
Big Edit, thanks to BumRushDaShow! 
"Fight The Power: Remix 2020"
(feat. Jahi, Rapsody, Black Thought, Nas, YG)
[Chuck D:]
This is revolution shit
Uh, yeah, c'mon and get down
Uh, yeah, c'mon and get down
Uh, yeah, hey
The year is 2020, the number
A little somethin' to get down
Sound of the funky drummer
Music hitting' the heart 'cause I know you got soul
Brothers and sisters
[Nas:]
The Information Age
Got 'em seein' what's really wrong with these racist days
I honor the strong and pity the weak
Your thoughts run your life, be careful what you think
Haiti beat France, a century, seventeen
Salute Toussaint and Dessalines
And I do love France, know what I mean?
It's the system I'm talkin', nobody's agreein'
They say, "Suicide," when dead bodies are swingin'
Cowards are huntin' black men, that's what I'm seein'
How many toasters have been burnt down?
And once Central Park was a thrivin' black town
Yo, Chuck, I'm fightin' the power right now
Thank you, Flav and P-E, puttin' it down
Puttin' your life on the line so I could rap now
The next generation still singin', "Fight the Power"
[(Chuck D) Flava Flav:]
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power, (we got to fight the powers that be)
[Rapsody:]
Police think they reign [?] over the law (Yeah)
When they give us short sticks but we really need a long
To the boys in the hood, duckin' bullets and batons
From boys in the hood, triple Ks on they arm
Four fingers on my palm screamin', "Fight"
Change the policy, before I buy back our property
You love Black Panther but not Fred Hampton
Word to the Howards and the Aggies and the Hamptons
They book us, won't book us, I'm Booker
T. Washington, George killed, for twenty
Think about it (Think), that's two thousand pennies
The value of black life the cost of goin' to Wendy's
For a four-quarter burger, ended in murder
Fight for Breonna and the pain of her mother, gotta
[(Chuck D) Flava Flav:]
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power, (we got to fight the powers that be)
[Black Thought:]
Yeah, generations just how long we been at war
The revolution on all platforms
You break a man's mind in his back
Yo, solidarity is what I'm wearin' all black for
For comrades who done fought without me
It's not to try and change y'all thoughts about me
Or to redirect your reports about me
Dear white people, you should take a course about me
'Cause, is it the law, for a four-finger ring?
The sciences and the arts, the songs we can sing?
I really wanna know why y'all so scared
Prolly 'cause the promised land, we almost there
But look, I think of images that fuel my youth
Been influenced by Craig Hodges and Abdul-Rauf
Examples like Olympic, Black Power salutes
To Panther troops, I saw as I pursued my truth
If racism is the cancer, black thought's the answer
Gotta get up off the back porch, emancipate your minds
Get your bodies back from ransom (C'mon)
And all black hands up for the anthem
[(Chuck D) Flava Flav:]
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power, we got to fight the powers that be
Yo, yo, check this out, man
Bring that beat back, man (Bring that beat back)
In two, three, four, hit it
[Jahi:]
People, people, stronger than this evil
Smashin' your power structure, melanin royal, regal
System designed to kill and unprotect
Worldwide, hit the streets just to get some respect
Our fight and our rights for freedom will never wane
But justice Breonna Taylor, salute Chuck and Flava
Feel the same anger since Radio Raheem died
Black power to the people, push forward, pride
[YG:]
Fight power like it's the opp, though
Born to fight, I made it off the block though
Thought he had a gun and he was black, that's the combo
The police killed George havin' a convo (George)
They killed Malcolm X, they killed Doctor King (Doctor King)
They gave us guns and dope, they wanna stop our kings
They tryna erase our history, stop and think
History class ain't tell us 'bout Juneteeth
Cops don't give a damn about a negro
Pull the trigger, kill a negro, he's a hero
Fuck livin' life on welfare, the last one who cared was Obamacare
Round twelve, nose kinda bloody, gotta keep fightin'
Trump flew to North Korea, they respect violence
If you ain't tryna have your city on fire
Put some respect on our name, we come from gold and diamonds
[(Chuck D) Flava Flav:]
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power, (we got to fight the powers that be)
Yo, yo
[Chuck D:]
Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Motherfuck him and John Wayne
'Cause I'm Black and I'm proud
I'm ready, I'm hyped plus I'm amped
Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps
Sample a look back you look and find
Nothing but rednecks for four hundred years if you check
"Don't Worry, Be Happy" was a number one jam
Damn if I say it you can slap me right here
(Get it) Let's get this party started right
Right on, c'mon
What we got to say
Power to the people no delay
Make everybody see
In order to fight the powers that be
September 4, 2020
A Great Veteran and Senator
I hope Joe Biden appoints her Secretary of Veteran Affairs.
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayHometown: New England, The South, Midwest
Home country: USA
Current location: Sarasota
Member since: Sat Mar 5, 2011, 12:32 PM
Number of posts: 36,034
