America's Rancid History

Here is a place in the road
Where barefoot whites are looking at barefoot blacks
Looking hard and looking close
Looking and peering and a rubbing of chins
And a bugle blows
And the white chins are lifted
White is better than black, they say
Light is better than darkness
Milk is better than molasses
So black skins work for white skins, they say
Work hard and long and maybe you get fed
Work day and night and maybe you get sleep
And no lip about it or you get the whip
Or the club or a chain gang
Where you from? From up north?
We love it when they come here
Come down here from up there
To be bought and sold on the block
And the barefoot whites jingle the coins
Jingle the coins in their pockets and smile
It's money, honey. Don't you understand that?
Now you get your black ass to work
And no more questions.
At a place in the road
Where barefoot whites are looking at barefoot blacks.