Shades of Brown

They say the darkest hour is just before the dawn
In chess, without exception, white moves the first pawn
They called it "Black Tuesday" when the stock market crashed
A fix in 1919 turned the White Sox to Black
Black balled, black magic, executioner's hood
White hatted, white horsed, champion of good
Black knight of Dark Ages on the darkest night
The Pope walks in truth, head to toe in white

[Chorus]
Who started all this bullshit - were they looking for a fight?
You didn't have to be there to know that they were white
But when you're talking skin tone, let's not fuck around
Cause no one's really black or white, we're all just shades of brown

Black hearted, black beard on the briney deep
Or the family outcast you call the black sheep
Days of black plague - draw your final breath
Heading for heaven white dying of Black Death

Mankind is preoccupied to keep each other down
Some use superstition, a Bible or a crown
At best it's fear and ignorance, at worst, it's a sin
Not God and country, king or crown, it's the pigment of our skin
Used to reinforce what's wrong or right
It's really just the presence or absence of light
In the blackest hour of the blackest day
It isn't mighty white of us, but we gotta say

[Chorus]

White when your marry, black when you die
A racial hierarchy, a festering white lie
White stands for ignorance, pure and sincere
But if you're talking bigotry it should be crystal clear
The new world beckoned, the immigrants came
Homogenized their culture, anglicized their names
Then they painted Jesus, blond with eyes of blue
Not a Nazarene, more a nazi than a Jew
In the black revolution with their Black Power found
Till their leaders were all jailed or stomped into the ground
And the final step ironic to nail that coffin tight
The powder of enslavement in their glassine bags of white