“It comes as a great shock…to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance…has not pledged allegiance to you.” - James Baldwin 1965.
America is a violent place.
Born out of violence against its colonial master, its dependence on slavery was repealed only after four long years of brutal civil war. Social gains in the 60’s were only earned by raging protests, assassinations and, arguably, acts of insurrection. Even up to 2020, burning cities shone a light on the unworkable nature of the handling of race within The United States.
Violence is deeply part of how America gets things done.
I lived in The United States for close to 25 years and when my son & I drove across country in late 2018 we witnessed a massive underclass of all races that has been pillaged by political parties and big business for over 40 years.
It is undereducated, ridiculed by the media outlets of both coasts, ignored by Wall Street. It is confused and frightened. It is a mass of contradictions, eats badly, is on drugs and has loads of guns. I’m guessing it numbers about 40 to 70 million.
Maybe more.
A perfect recipe for violence.
“This Is War” by Greg Tate talks about such violence.
Written in the form of a letter from a father to a daughter, it describes acts of terrorism and the justifications for carrying them out. A man who feels so disenfranchised from the status quo that he has no problem leaving: “Bodies splayed in the terminals like crippled umbrellas”.
This is of course fantasy.
Isn’t it?
THIS IS WAR
Yellow Note ft Greg Tate
This is war…
Dear Daughter,
Our solution was race war.
Guerilla warfare and extravagant weaponry implants for the body.
Bionic SWAT teams shooting up everywhere.
We blossomed into poisoned mushrooms and microcosmic Hiroshimas.
The airports began belching hand grenades.
Bodies turned up splayed in the terminals like crippled umberellas
We were the one’s who blew up The Brooklyn Bridge
And burned Harlem to the ground.
We were the ones who said “Gentrify This”
Try moving your leisure classes into rubble & ashes
This is war
And since the white body politic never distiguishes between hard and soft targets why should we?
When we came on the scene they were in the process of making Blackness the legal definition of Madness, Crime & Disease.
They were making Blackness the definition of insanity & the plague.
We were the ones who stood up & said:
“You wanna see sick black & crazy?
We’re the ones to give it to you in spades…”
Original version of This Is War on Spotify
More Yellow Note: HERE