alexpiercey wrote:
Does anyone here "please stick 'em up" ("police, stick 'em up"maybe?) repeated over the last few beats? I keep singing it to myself at that part and I need to know if I'm going crazy.
This confirms what i wanted to ask: Is this song about racism and the need for those of us who are white to approach the conversation as a dialogue to overcome the essential root of the problem.
wrote:
All the pieces where they ought to be
but it’s clear that he don’t look like me
We're all made of the same things, but our skin color reminds us of the difference in terms of the other person "not looking like me", or White as the dominant versus skin of color as the subordinate, which creates in the human brain the primitive/superficial understanding of appearance as the humanizing (or dehumanizing) factor.
wrote:
Pick a place around the table talk
make a push to wake the comatose
Be engaged and involved in the conversation about approaching and destroying racism by awakening ourselves to our inherent, socioculturally constructed racial bias.
wrote:
Say you pause to say what’s wrong and quickly
blow up the cover
There’s a way through fogs as long as there’s a light to discover (it)
When you're caught being racist, aka, unconsciously/accidentally invoking the deep-seated racism that has been built into you by society and your own behaviors (whether directly re-inforcing those views through racist acts or passively not challenging them as the dehumanizing evil they embody) and how our racialized, anti-black, white-centric culture views it as "blowing your cover."
But realize that in that moment when you're stumbling through the fog of your brain looking for an excuse to avoid being called racist, it should be the time for you to look to the "light" of truth and understand you need to challenge the evil nature of racial prejudice.
wrote:
Like a twisted stick, let’s dig through the sick and find a level space
Cinch to say
This ones a little tough —and i guess i should say that with this analysis i'm in no way claiming to be an expert on racial politics and deconstructing white supremacy. I feel its necessary to talk about this and hope this will only open further dialogue rather than seem like im trying to soapbox a song meaning — but i think its simply put: dig through the shit and create true equality.
wrote:
It’s a gut that fears all things unknown
and a link within the brain you know
Again, pointing at our body's designed prejudice response to dealing with the unknown, that we engrained within ourselves as humans over thousands of years of history, of interacting with one another, this fear because we didn't really know the truth that we are the same being humans, yet just different most apparently in skin color.
wrote:
Not a shame to say the instincts there
but a virtue to deny the bait
It's the result of a naturally-existing function in your body and brain, so of course we can't be merely ashamed of ourselves. Can't really understand what the second line means just yet, maybe like, you can use the quality to understand the triggers of racism in you and "deny" their bait, aka, transform it within yourself.
wrote:
Know the cause and move to gauze and deftly
tratar o sangue (clean up the blood)
Understand the root, heal the wound against your own humanity it has created (since dehumanizing someone else is in itself inhumane).
wrote:
In the law there’s room to move
as there’s a need to uncover it
Things need to change legally, too, not just individual people. Racism is an institutional phenomenon, it is a result of people's prejudice combined with their power as the dominant culture in society to legally disenfranchise and discriminate Black People and other People of Color (though I want to focus on Black People, just to speak truly against anti-Blackness as Blackness is viewed as the extreme opposite of Whiteness, darker skin versus lighter skin).
wrote:
As a choker sucks, let’s sift through the muck and lift this dingy veil
same old tale
The choker...maybe another term for a "high collar", dont get what it would mean to be sucking though...
Lets move through the bad shit, like head on, don't be ashamed or overwhelmed. White people haven't been forced to think about race every day in terms of their identity, so of course it is a difficult process to move through, but it needs to be done so stop avoiding it or denying it or complaining it of it being too much to deal with, move through it and remove the superficial stigma held within that veils the truth. Same old tale, like it's simple? Or its something we ought to know by now, that to be superficial is bullshit, like "c'mon you know that".
wrote:
Get mixed in this crippling fixture
Try and approach the hidden mixtures
Get mixed in this crippling fixture
Try and approach the hidden picture it
Get involved in this conversation concerning the structural reality (fixture) of racism in our lives, don't avoid it. It's crippling for so many people, and crippling even us White People ultimately from taking part in our shared humanity.
Get to the bottom of the mystery (?), and picture it, imagine a world without racism.
wrote:
For a misplaced stash, let’s search through the trash and right this ignorant lurch
wicked urge
Comparing our anti-racist humanity to a misplaced stash, you have to look for it in the trash that is its reality and disgusting form in society, between people, and in us. It's both a an ignorant reaction and a terribly wicked urge when viewed as the right thing.
wrote:
Raise the gab above a whisper
Speak to salve a spoiling blister
Raise the gab above a whisper
Talk to cure a blister
Picture it
Raise your voice on the matter, stop whispering and gabbing about it insignificantly and passively. Use your voice and engage in dialogue to address and heal the blister that it is. And most of all, IMAGINE IT, PICTURE IT, your own fight against your internalized racism and a world rid of this disease.
And finally if it IS saying "Police stick em up" at the end, then it's pointing at the most brutal manifestation of what they're talking about: the plight of Black People due to all the functions and aspects of racism they mention in the song playing out in the position of the police officer, who has legal jurisdiction to murder anyone they deem a threat unless the most blatant of evidence can prove otherwise (though not always, as history has shown us). And not to say all people who are police act in this manner. I think its pointing at the institution of the police within our White supremacist society, which can express itself as the authoritative oppressor of Black People and People of Color, and the protector of anti-Blackness and White supremacy.
