"Jim Crow" lyrics - SHO BARAKA

SHO BARAKA
"Jim Crow"
(Amisho Baraka Lewis)

[Hook:]
I feel I'm trapped in a crazy place
Asking the Lord for amazing grace
I see the masses wanna change me
I'm waiting for someone to save me
Until then, until then
Well I guess I'm stuck here on nigga island
Where niggas be wilin'
And color is violence
Moment of silence
Well I guess I'm stuck here on nigga island
Where niggas be wilin'
And color is violence
Moment of silence

(Yeah)
I am the invisible man
Though I have a soul
I am from an invisible land
They gave me a slave pen
For my freedom of speech
Yeah I'm trying to leave the island
But swimming through bleach
"C'mon son why you always ruin the mood?
Race talks happen every time you enter the room."
There's ignorance in the masses
Too many people think racism is past tense
We fight for blackness
But we don't know what Black is
I know it ain't the zero sum of white men
They wanna know how to reach the hood like there's magic
Like we're all the same
Like we're not dynamic
Hollywood wants to pimp us to get dough
Exploit us, but give us money
Somebody say "Ho!"
Let's thank them movies and them TV shows
Be a token or I'll play an Uncle Tom role
Or be a magic negro until the day I'm gone
Help the white man reach his goal
But never reach my own
Or an oversexed male
Even a coon
A young man who loves ignorance
Praising his doom
Until then...

[Hook]

Say hello to the great cultural brainwash
Washing my brain from some of the things that race taught
Miseducate
Colonize, divide
Teach beauty in straight hair
In the bluest of eyes
And because of lies, I'm debating five percenters
How the mideast movement gon be a white man's religion?
How a privileged man gon say it's time to move forward
And say the game's fair when he monopolize the board?
And corporate greed just manipulates the poor
Outside the hood, I don't see liquor stores
I know God is sovereign and I should pray about it
But a man won't stop it, if it increases his profits
And most
Ain't realistic with the flow
They make music for the streets, but I don't see 'em at the show
So
Instead of truth, they'd rather be duped
I guess they want me to make more songs for youth groups
Until then

[Hook]

Yeah I got a double consciousness, but I'm still in touch
Cops got my hands in the air, so I ain't feeling much
Lookin for protection, all I can see is tyrants
I'm fighting them coons and thugs, some racists and Don Imus
That lady you call ho (yeah)
That's my lover
That woman you call bitch (yeah)
That's my mother
Them boys that you killed
Them my brothers
Send the ship to the island, we can rescue some others
Did they fight for civil rights so we could sit on gold?
I can't walk in your shoes, you keep sellin your sole
No
Ain't much Booker T when you look at me
But a whole lot of Dubois making noise
Until then

[Hook]

[Outro:]
Here we are, put on a show
Dance a jig, go Jim Crow
Here we are, put on a show
Dance a jig, go monkey go
Here we are, put on a show
Dance a jig, go Jim Crow
Go Jim Crow say go Jim Crow
Go Jim Crow, say go monkey go
That's what you want me to do, right?
(Are you entertained?)