Aaron Dillard - Lesson in Oppression lyrics

(1st Verse – Audyo) Everything that I could watch when I was young was educational It taught me how my people were perceived up in this nation yo All black men were punch lines, or always acting lazy And every woman out here, was loud or acting crazy Oh you're not too good at playing ball? Then you clearly ain't got no worth Yeah they never said it directly, but that's the message they sent since birth With Ebonics the main language, or its obvious you're the token You can't fit into this description? You're not black, man are you broken? This is a system that exists just with a goal to bring us down And by us I mean intelligent, articulate and brown They wanna ask if all this happens, what's different about me? Well I had mentors all around me, not just actors on a screen But lets say that somebody didn't And lets say this kid's name is Robert And he never saw a role model With a goal to help push him farther And his mom, you know, she's always working And his dad won't even bother And lets just this kid's living poor Yeah lets make this kid's life harder So he falls behind in school, but won't worry about his grades because All around him, what's important's getting paid And he clicks on his TV Oh surprise, what does he see? Some fool acting showing Robert that he needs to be a G Then he looks outside his window and its all the same thing So he lets that be his life, or at least what's remaining With a dream to be the most successful dealer on his block Plus the glory that connects when he finesses his mom's Glock Made an equation to truly station a generation at the bottom But penetration is what mattered when his mentor went and shot him (2nd Verse – Tawanda) Young black brother from the motherland Who plays stereotypes for Ariel Heights Folk as they touch my hair and treat me like a no-man A nomad, who ventured to America through flights (Leggo) I spit all these bars 'hind systematic bars And I spar with the fates of my stars as they spin They spun years ago as they span ‘cross the skies Navigating slaves ships with *Breath* no oxygen The blades cut yesterday, the wounds bleeds today Historical precedence don't simply fly away When the winds of time sway only one way To the moment when only through a song we can say That all the paper stacked by the rappers and all the ballers Is all blown away by the wind at the end of every autumn I'm still recalling when the floods of Katrina had strange fruit falling From tops of houses to escape the waters- Then broke and drowning in their surroundings Yet still can't breathe when there ain't no mountain- High enough that we can't climb High enough that we can't climb All year I been on my grind All year I been on my grind They be lookin' at me crazy Like my mind is hazy 'ginning of the year they called me Black Slim Shady Never in the heads did they ever understand that who I wanna be is a young Jay-Z But rapping's what's expected of someone as dark as me Truth be told no respect from y'all 'til Harvard called me But complaining's what's expected of someone as self aware as me Truth be told half of y'all have eyes but can't see That I've got a dream but I struggle to fulfill it That I've been to the mountaintop and found that they still k**ing us That to be judged by the content of my character Only brings about laugher of a judge holding a gavel That is clearly labeled 'master' so I been running faster To k** slavery of thought so that I break apart this vault (End) Well they asked us for a lesson But we gon give them more Cause these people need to understand Just what I'm fighting for Well they asked us for a lesson, but we give them a course Cause you need to see the ocean instead of only the shore And here's just one suggestion It's about just living poor Equality's not equity And people just ignore Remember all of the suggestions and lesson that we be teaching Cause when the guns go blah it's all red that we bleeding