Lessons In Civility

You know what’s hard about civil rights? I’m the white male juvenile discussing it Can you put that picture together? I’m blamed for the mistakes of people I never knew I get it It’s like trying to see love for the first time How can something so superficial in my mind… Be so real “Momma always told me” That’s how I begin a lot of my songs I etch out that line She taught me a lot but I don’t know how to express her thoughts Because she understands me on a different medium Just how I understand my fellow races Differently Culture shock you could say That’s why I always remind them I love them Like brothers and sisters That’s what the bible says we are I revel in the fact that we’ve come so far They’ll still call me over-privileged No matter how much bacon Dad brings home Dad hasn’t brought home a pig in a while Y’all wouldn’t know unless you asked I guess that was the problem from the beginning The plantation owner never asked the slave How was your day? Because the answer he would get was an automated response “A great day, master” If that question was ever asked at all This is a society that never lies true to itself Because we’re always looking for something else Thank God for conviction Someone had to stand up and say it We as humanity have a conscience In that conscience we know we are equal Not from face value of the word But that no man is lesser or greater in power No woman is lesser and great in power No race is more powerful than the other So yes that is right Hitler The Aryan’s have nothing over the rest of us Life couldn’t be beautiful otherwise You and I know that They fought on buses in the south And I still take the Freedom Rider’s express Because you may see me for being a white male But this does not determine the color of my soul That color being yellow Yellow is the color of the sun Yellow is the color of life We all wake up to the sun We’ve come upon a time To embrace the power of each other In our difference and indifferences To call us together as sister and brother