Black Peoples' Lament (American History in Black)

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Ualthan

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Will white people please tell us how long must we endure
We’ve tolerated so much, we’re tired and we’re sore
The beatings, the abuses, the trees bearing strange fruits
And now we sit and watch the state murdering our youths
They stole us and forced us to be tillers of their fields
On pain of death we had to work because we had no shield
Our black backs they did flay with whips, blood mingling with the soil
As we labored enriched them, a long and awful toil
And then when we were old and weak, they just tossed us aside
Like so much dirt and refuse, human beings bereft of pride
So white people please tell us how long must we endure
We’ve tolerated too much, we can’t tolerate no more
The state forced them to free us midst the tumult of the war
And promised us it’s succor, something to take us far
A mule and forty acres, our very own lands to till
And by God we knew we earned it by the sheer force of our will
They reneged on that promise, to the white planters delight
Who then employed their slave patrols to guard against our flight
So white people please tell us how much must we endure
We’ve tolerated too much, we can’t tolerate no more
For the next many ensuing days, about a hundred years or so
We lived under the system, you now know as Jim crow
Where oppressive Black Codes and state laws created by those brutes
Trapped us in the burning hell of Indentured servitude
Our women they did sometimes rape and our young men sometimes lynched
Our rights as humans stolen, as our voices, they did clinch
So white people please tell us how long must we endure
We’ve tolerated too much, we can’t tolerate no more
The Courts they stacked with white judges, so hate-filled and so flawed
Ex confederate soldiers, hired to enforce the laws
They sentenced us to many years in cruel labor camps
To continue to exploit us to enrich the evil scamps
This period saw the white folks spawned, the white knights, Ku Klux Klan
To terrorize black people, its sole and only plan
So white people please tell us how much must we endure
We’ve tolerated too much, we can’t tolerate no more
Under white masks and white sheets, they came deep in the night
Employing terror tactics to put black folks to flight
They burned our churches, burned our schools and even burned our homes
While governments, both North and South disregarded all our moans
And when these terror tactics failed our compliance to clinch
They came like devils in the night our black bodies to lynch
So white people please tell us how long must we endure
We’ve tolerated too much, we can’t tolerate no more
Then Through much sacrifice and blood, the civil rights era came
We thought that finally, whew, you would up and change the game
You opened up the ballot box so we could cast our vote
To college and university, as men we could now go
We’re finally endowed the right to run for state office
Or secure a new white-collar job down at the corner office
So white people please tell us how much must we endure
We’ve tolerated too much, we can’t tolerate no more
But the paths to our advancement are very often blocked
And we have to work twice as hard for a nice pat on the back
And as we climb the ladder, aspiring for the top
More often than not we’re stymied by the white creams of the crop
So often all our efforts fail, they end up in a bust
Cause rarely we’re rewarded with positions that are just
So white people please tell us how long must we endure
We’ve tolerated too much, we can’t tolerate no more
The racist underbelly of your country’s still the same
Cause equal rights and justice we black folks still cannot claim
We’re subject to abuses at the hands of policemen
And If we’re lucky to survive encounters with your men
To corporate prisons, hedge fund owned, by your courts we’re often sent
To serve excessive prison terms, enriching rich white men
So white people please tell us how much must we endure
We’ve tolerated too much, we can’t tolerate no more
And now here is the awful truth that it pains me to say
If we live to make it to the jail, we should give thanks and pray
Our lives are cheap, police can kill us with impunity
Cause there is still no justice for the folks who're black, like me
They abuse us and they shoot us, sometimes choke us to death
And if we’re lucky, they’re sent home, with pay checks, while they rest
So white people please tell us how long must we endure
We’ve tolerated too much, we can’t tolerate no more
What am I really saying to you, you very well may ask
Just take some time and have a look at our not too distant past
Eric Garner died because he couldn’t breathe worth a heck
And George Floyd, he was just the same, a cop’s knee on his neck
And who can forget the young child, the one called Tamir Rice
For having a toy gun in the park, he paid the ultimate price
So white people please tell us how much must we endure
We’ve tolerated too much, we can’t tolerate no more
Freddie Gray arrested for possession of a knife
In transit in a police van, they took away his life
And how about Breonna Taylor, asleep and in her bed
The police, they kicked in her door, and there they shot her dead
Or Philando Castile, driving his girlfriend home from a meal
Stopped by police and shot dead, sitting there behind the wheel
So white people please tell us how much must we endure
We’ve tolerated too much, we can’t tolerate no more
How often must black parents be subject to this pain
Each time a young black man is killed, wounds open up again
When will this nation’s white people, heed the clarion call
That justice that’s denied to one will overtakes us all
And when is it they’ll realize, that no truly great state
Would leave any of its people to this cruel barbaric fate
So white people please tell us, how much must we endure
We’ve tolerated so much, we’re tired and we’re sore
The beatings, the abuses, the trees bearing strange fruits
And how much longer must we watch the murder of our youths
So once again I ask you, how much must we endure
We’ve tolerated so much, we’re tired and we’re sore
The beatings, the abuses, the trees bearing strange fruits
And how much longer must we watch the murder of our youths

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