#22, Black
This month we discussed the slave trade in Central and Western Africa. The transatlantic slave trade had tremendous political, economic, and cultural consequences for the African continent. The legacy of the trade persists even today. Can you imagine the state of Africa and the rest of the world had the slave trade not happened?
Lupe Fiasco, a Chicago born hip hop artist, did just that. His song All Black Everything describes a world in which slavery did not exist. Read the lyrics as you listen to the song.
You would never know
If you could ever be
If you never try
You would never see
Stayed in Africa
We ain’t never leave
So there were no slaves in our history
Were no slave ships, were no misery, call me crazy, or isn’t he
See I fell asleep and I had a dream, it was all black everything
Uh, and we ain’t get exploited
White man ain’t feared so he did not destroy it
We ain’t work for free, see they had to employ it
Built it up together so we equally appointed
First 400 years, see we actually enjoyed it
Constitution written by the W.E.B. Du Bois
Were no reconstructions, Civil War got avoided
Little black Sambo grows up to be a lawyer
Extra extra on the news stands
Black woman voted head of Ku Klux Klan
Malcolm Little dies as a old man
Martin Luther King read the eulogy for him
Followed by Bill O’Reilly who read from the Quran
President Bush sends condolences from Iran
Where FOX News reports live
That Ahmadinejad wins Mandela peace prize
You would never know
If you could ever be
If you never try
You would never see
Stayed in Africa
We ain’t never leave
So there were no slaves in our history
Were no slave ships, were no misery, call me crazy, or isn’t he
See I fell asleep and I had a dream, it was all black everything
Uh, and it ain’t no projects
Keepin it real is not an understood concept
Yea, complexion’s not a contest
Cause racism has no context
Hip hop ain’t got a section called conscious
Everybody rappin’ like crack never happened
Crips never occurred no Bloods to attack them
Matter of fact no hood to attack in
Somalia is a great place to relax in
Fred Astaire was the first to do a backspin
The Rat Pack was cool group of black men
That inspired five white guys called The Jacksons
Eminem fitted in but then again he inspired a black rapper tryin to mimic him
And that’s what really rose up out of Michigan, the sign of white rapper by the name of 50 Cent, ha!
You would never know
If you could ever be
If you never try
You would never see
Stayed in Africa
We ain’t never leave
So there were no slaves in our history
Were no slave ships, were no misery, call me crazy, or isn’t he
See I fell asleep and I had a dream, it was all black everything
Uh, and I know it’s just a fantasy
I cordially invite you to ask why can’t it be?
Now we can do nothing bout the past
But we can do something about the future that we have
We can make fast or we can make it last
Every woman Queenin’ and every man a Kingin’
When those color lines come we can’t see between
We just close our eyes ’til it’s all black every-THING!
You would never know
If you could ever be
If you never try
You would never see
Stayed in Africa
We ain’t never leave
So there were no slaves in our history
Were no slave ships, were no misery, call me crazy, or isn’t he
See I fell asleep and I had a dream, it was all black everything
Take one of the lines from the song and analyze it. What does the line mean? How does it connect to the idea All Black Everything? For example,
"Black woman voted head of Ku Klux Klan"
-The Ku Klux Klan is a group of white supremacists formed during the mid 19th century in southern part of the United States. The leaders of the Ku Klux Klan have all been white males. In Lupe's song, everything is backwards, so the leader of the Ku Klux Klan is an African American woman. Further, the Ku Klux Klan would hold a philosophy of black supremacy.
Optional: Imagine that Japan did not colonize Korea. Rewrite some of the lyrics to All Black Everything with the theme, "All Korean Everything".
-Brenden Lee Teacher
if you're having fencepost errors, i feel bad for you son