Stevie Wonder, Common - Black America Again

[Verse 1: Common]
Here we go, here, here we go again,
Trayvon'll never get to be an older man,
Black children, they childhood stole from them,
Robbed of our names and our language, stole again,
Who stole the soul from black folk?
Same man that stole the land from Chief Black Smoke
And made the whip crackle on our back slow,
And made us go through the back door,
And raffle black bodies on the slave blocks.
Now we slave to the blocks, on 'em we spray shots
Leavin' our own to lay in a box,
Black mothers' stomachs stay in a knot,
We kill each other, it's part of the plot.
I wish the hating will stop and the battle with us,
I know that black lives matter, and they matter to us,
These are the things we gotta discuss.
The new plantation, mass incarceration
Instead of educate, they'd rather convict the kids,
As dirty as the water in Flint, the system is,
Is it a felony or a misdemeanor?
Maria Sharapova makin' more than Serena,
It took Viola Davis to say this,
The roles of the help and the gangstas is really all they gave us.
We need Avas, Ta-Nehisis, and Cory Bookers,
The salt of the Earth to get us off of sugar
And greasy foods; I don't believe the news
Or radio, stereotypes we refuse,
Brainwashed in the cycle to spin,
We write our own story, black America again.

[James Brown:]
You know, one way of solving a lot of problems that we've got is lettin' a person feel that they're important. And a man can't get himself together until he knows who he is, and be proud of what and who he is and where he come from, and where he come from...

[Verse 2: Common]
Hot damn, black America again!
Think of Sandra Bland as I'm starin' in the wind,
The color of my skin, they comparin' it to sin,
The darker it gets, the less fairer it has been,
The hate the hate made, I inherited from them,
But I ain't gon' point the finger.
We got anointed singers, like Nina, Marvin, Billie, Stevie
Need to hear them songs sometimes to believe me.
Who freed me: Lincoln or Cadillac?
Drinkin' or battle raps? Or is it Godspeed that we travel at?
Endangered in our own habitat,
The guns and dope, man, y'all can have it back,
As a matter of fact, we them lab rats,
You build the projects for, now you want your hood back,
I guess if you could rap, you would express it too.
That PTSD, we need professionals,
You know what pressure do, it make the pipes bust,
From schools to prison, y'all, they tryna pipe us,
Tell your political parties invite us
Instead of making voting laws to spite us.
You know, you know we from a family of fighters,
Fought in your wars and our wars,
You put a nigga in Star Wars, maybe you need two
And then, maybe then we'll believe you.
See black people in the future,
We wasn't shipped here to rob and shoot ya,
We hold these truths to be self-evident
All men and women are created equal
Including black Americans.

[James Brown:]
You know, you know, you know, one way of solving a lot of problems that we've got is to let a person feel like somebody. And a man can't get himself together until he knows who he is, and be proud of what and who he is and where he come from, and where he come from...

[Stevie Wonder:]
We are rewriting the black American story! [×12]