Racism and Capitalism: A Poem from comrade Matt

Here is another awesome poem from our comrade Matt.

Racism and capitalism



If you find the confederate flag offensive

So too should you find the nickel

If you find the confederate flag offensive

So too should you find the name of this nations capital

If you find the confederate flag offensive

So too should you find the American flag they all stand

For the same fucking thing…

Racism and capitalism

When rich kids pass through cities

Such as Watts, South Central, East Los Angeles, Compton

They are told to watch their wallets

When Governors, Mayors, city council members

Discuss allocating funds

For cities such as Watts, South Central, East Los Angeles, Compton

We are told to remember the budget

But they still find ways to build more prisons

Ramp up police departments

Staffed by lawless men

Who run wild through these cities

Making the law as they go

They call this service and protection

But they have always had a funny way of looking at things

Like history books that teach our children

To hallow hollow preambles

That include phrases such as

We the people! We the people?

As drafted by slaveholders and land barons

Invaders and treaty breakers

Backstabbers and bastards

Enshrined as our founding fathers

But I hear things are changing

In a slow but steady progress

A uniquely American process

But to be honest

I don’t feel any change

And I don’t see much difference

Between gentrification

And trails of tears the Chavez Ravine

Or post Katrina New Orleans

Cause when the hurricane struck

When the Levees broke

With a few pen strokes

They set in motion what they had already planned

They don’t want them back

It wasn’t negligence it wasn’t incompetence

It was some straight up evil shit

Oh they plan to rebuild New Orleans

Along the lines of an amusement park

A beautiful place to visit

With nowhere to live

They don’t want them back

Who are they?

What do I mean by them?

Let me be clear, let me be clear

I am not talking about a Black, White

Latino, Middle Eastern, Asian divide

I am talking about the fortune five hundred

America incorporated

Give us your tired, your yearning, your huddled masses

So we can work their asses

Give us your coffin ship Irish

So we can turn their children

Into factory workers

Send your sickly Italians

To Ellis Island

Well take em all over the country

Turning them into coal miners

Dying of the black lung

Or in Ludlow Massacres

See back then

If you wanted to form a union

The color of your eyes the complexion of your skin

Offered no protection no you would have to shoot it out

With Carnegie and Rockefellers men

Jim Crow and Jay Gould walking hand in hand

In the robber baron era of white privilege

Poor whites had the right

To mob violence to terrorism

The privilege to lynch

Black men, kill Indians

Beat Mexicans and then starve

Right alongside with them

Because you cannot eat racism

And you cannot clothe your children in racism

And when they question

Mom where are we going to sleep tonight

I don’t know son

But at least were not spics

Is not a suitable answer

Because racism can only be used

By a privileged few

To divide the many

To divide us to divide we the people

We are the people

And you cannot lift a finger for the immigrants

Without the courage to raise your fist

In defense of all of us

And you cannot solve black poverty

Without solving all poverty

Because attacking racism without attacking capitalism

Is like chopping down strange fruit

And leaving the fucking tree