[Introduction]
Why are we called Negroes?
Why are we deaf, dumb, and blind?
Why is everybody making progress
Yet we seem to be lagging so far behind?
Why are we mistreated?
Why are we in this condition?
Stripped of our name, our language, our culture, our God, and our religion
Here in America, all of our religious training
Has been gotten by the preacher
He has told us of a heaven way up in the sky
That we can't enjoy now, but rather after we die
But all of the years that we're living
For us, there's nothing but hell
Pain, torture, and misgiving
Yet the Bible speaks of a heaven
Filled with material luxuries
Which the white man and the preacher
Has right here, so we see
So my friend, take it for what it's worth
Your heaven and your hell is right here on this earth
So let's check back into history, which rewards all research
And tell just plainly
That before the white man gained entry to the East
He was living in the caves of Europe, a ravenous beast
Eating juniper roots and eating fish raw
Til God sent Moses to civilize him and teach him the law
Then following Marco Polo, an explorer
He gained entry into Asia and Africa
From China, he took silk and gunpowder
From India, he took juice, manganese, and rubber
He raped Africa of her diamonds and her gold
From the Mideast, he took barrels of oil untold
Raping, robbing, and murdering everything in his path
The whole black world has tasted of the white man's wrath
So my friend, it's not hard to tell
A white man's heaven is a black man's hell
[Verse 1]
Before we came to America
We were living in the East by the Nile River
We were living in luxury
Enjoying freedom, justice, and equality
We wore silken robes, slippers of gold
We were the wealthiest and the wisest people, I'm told
Now we are the poorest of the poor
Nobody wants us at their door
So my friend, it's easy to tell
White man's heaven is black man hell
[Verse 2]
When the white man came to America
He told the Indian, "I am your white brother"
He said, "Red man, I'll treat you the best"
Yet and still he pushed the Indian further west
With his white woman and firewater
Tricks and lies, he stole America
The original owner of this nation
Is cooped up on a reservation
So my friend, it's easy to tell
White man's heaven is black man hell
[Verse 3]
He needed someone to work the land
His back was too weak -- he needed you, black man
So he commissioned Sir John Hawkins
To commit the worst, most grievous sin
To take a man who's born to be free
And bring him down slavery
Sell a man as merchandise
On his body, put a price
Oh my friend, it's easy to tell
White man heaven is a black man hell