Haunting and hard hitting, mostly spoken word hip hop/symphonic rock tune decrying racism and discrimination from the standpoint of a very concerned white man.
alternative
progressive
rock
hiphop
apocalypse
vocal
urban
political
world
Story behind the song
Though it's not really my place to rap on a personal level about racial oppression, I thought I'd take the time to present a general overview of major historical and current events and circumstances, and I'm proud to bear the same given name as the great, first black, pre-Civil War, rights activist, Frederick Douglas. I've read his narrative multiple times. Also, it's not like I don't know what it's like to be discriminated against. As a young, pot smoking musician, I was maliciously misdiagnosed and committed as a schizophrenic in a manner that is now illegal, and forced to work in a slave labour workshop which they called work therapy, for many months. Even though no one had ever considered me to be sick, I had naively underestimated the repressive incompetence of 1970's psychiatry and presented myself for counselling for my pot habit and other associated frustrations. What a mistake! The war against the counter-culture was in full swing and my parent's new family doctor was more than willing to abuse his power, which was greater than that of the police. A very brief argument ensued with me on the losing end. Finally a decent psychiatrist took over my file and released me, but it was perfectly legal in the 70's to lock people up indefinitely, and then later job discriminate against such people on the basis of psychiatric history. My reaction was to spend 8 years as a known psychiatric reform activist before going into business, and then comfortably retiring in 2009 at the age of 55. I often joke about it but I'm still fairly annoyed. During that period I knew 19 people who committed suicide, and if not for my sense of gallows humour and belief in non-violence I could have been one of them. It could have been worse though, on top of it all I could have also been Black, Indigenous or Asian. Then again, back in the 70's some people didn't consider Mediterranean complexions like mine to be fully white. Had I met my wife in the 70's, her father would have opposed us dating, being that I wasn't a WASP, though his attitudes changed markedly over the decades. All this being said, I don't consider myself to be Woke. I agree with Obama's advice that at this point, rights activism taken to too great an extreme tends to cause a counter-productive backlash. Also, Woke people sometimes go overboard. A friend of mine who is a white nurse told me how a black woman angrily admonished her for being racist. Meanwhile, my friend has long been married to a black man and has a black son. This kind of behaviour is not good. Also, I have a gay friend who is uncomfortable with the growing extremism of the LGBTQ movement. Balance and discretion is required. As both Buddha and Gandhi explained, the "Middle Way" is the best.
My country, Canada, has adopted many progressive social policies, but we are also often guilty of weaving a very pernicious web of self-righteous hypocrisy. IE - So now we're sending weapons to Ukraine, while wilfully blinding ourselves to the country's serious Neo-Nazi problem, cleverly hiding behind their sellout Jewish leader. So much for being peacemakers, now it's blessed are the weapons suppliers.
For more: http://www.cryterion.com/Abrev.UkraineCommentary.htm
Lyrics
White Life
My white life don't matter, I need more than that
My white life don't matter
Now let me tell you just what I mean, This may not be quite what it seems
I'm a white man, I've enjoyed the perks, But some of us are total jerks
I'm sick and tired of hypocrisy, And double standards causing misery
The arrogance of white supremacy, And now they're tired of democracy
My white life don't matter, I need more than that
My white life don't matter
They say that Lincoln freed the slaves, And that only holy Jesus saves
But Andrew Johnson* dealt his disdain, And then Jim Crow* turned up the pain
And now the Chinese are in their sights, But who are we to preach human rights
Living here on stolen land, A genocide of the red man
My white life don't matter, I need more than that
My white life don't matter
They say the last shall be first, And the first shall be last
Well, final warning, it's closing time, Look out now 'cause it's coming fast
My white life don't matter...
* Andrew Johnson was Lincoln's slave owning compromised choice for Vice-President, who as President sold out the blacks to their former slave masters. The plantation owners could no longer own slaves but they could force young blacks out of school to toil unpaid in the fields as "apprentices", so they could learn how to become impoverished sharecroppers.
* Jim Crow was an insulting blackface stereotype later used to describe the racist laws adopted by many states to oppress and contain blacks.