I’m white and just another stereotype
if you put me in a box I fit just right.
I can’t jump, I can’t swagger
but I rock like Mick Jagger
I watch Dr Who as a flower from my attic
I can fit right in
European or Puritan
speaking English ’cause it’s in
go to war for profits when
Americans ignore the prophets’ Armageddon
Don’t read this like hip hop
more like spoken word
more like just my words
the flow is quick and frantic
I hop from tangent to antigen
to a virus only I’m imagining
I have white misogynistic imperial guilt
burn in the sun
speak with Shakesperian wit
can’t play ball
and can’t rhyme a lick
I mock your divisions
Unique is not a category
I rise on the shoulders
of those who came before me
I rise on the sacrifices
of my ancestors
and your ancestors
who my ancestors
killed and exploited
while running social experiments
to see if kings or clergy
were better at ordering the masses
to give up all advantages
to the upper classes
In the name of democracy
all of our forefathers are either losers or bastards.
And all of our foremothers
our poor mothers
it’s hard to evaluate relative tragedy
we survived they survived
Putting up with so much for nothing
Their freedom was an adjustment
It’s insulting
Freedom is the default we should all be wanting.
We want case by case but we think in patterns
Not ‘fraid of the dark but we all buy lanterns
We need the fit to survive so they lied
I didn’t win the egg race to be cast aside
I was born to swim
not necessarily better
nor faster
but to be one of those that could go the distance so that somebody would make it.
I wonder if it was a close race and I imagine it probably was.
I probably just got lucky.
And I’m happy to be here
on the shoulders of racists
and colonialists
and faithheads
How did I survive to be alive in the same world that would vote for Bush?
I don’t know if I’m happy he’s here.
Or if I think the exploitation of anyone is fair.
And I realize that the costs of existence are unfairly distributed
And morally nauseating because it’s hard to appreciate
anything other than merit based rewards
and then merit is a confusing concept
when circumstances weed out so many people
And of the people who are left.
Oddballs like Obama being presidents after being raised in single parent households
what’s so special about that?
He shouldn’t have been so successful by the numbers.
And if he was that predisposed to success he must have had damn good genetics or something.
And that’s not merit.
There must have been other hard working
Congressmen and Senaterrorists
I use him as an example
but I voted for him because he deserved it.
The strongest don’t survive.
The smartest don’t either.
Some seem to float clueless
through the same life I fight through.
I’m white and just another stereotype
if you put me in a box I fit just right.
As much as anyone else would fit
when you’re determined to fit
everyone into the holes like we’re pigeons
It’s simple but it can’t be forgiven
if I am stuck in the box once I’m put in,
I won’t stop till I find a way out.
And I’ll learn to rhyme along the way.
